Eskil Heinesen

The Rockwool Foundation · Research Unit

This study provides evidence on the immediate and long-term effects of parental separation and union dissolution on children’s test scores. We use administrative full population data on parents moving out of the joint home and national school-administered low-stakes test. First, a staggered event-study design finds long-term negative effects on tes...

Instrumental variables (IV) estimation of treatment effects is challenging if there are multiple unordered treatments. This note revisits the identification argument of Kirkeboen et al. (2016) who showed how one may combine multiple instruments with information about individuals' ranking of treatment types to achieve identification while allowing f...

We investigate whether accommodating job attributes influence the return-to-work probability three years after a cancer diagnosis. Using a combination of Danish administrative data and a survey carried out among Danish breast, colon, and melanoma skin cancer survivors, we find that the probability of returning to work is significantly and positivel...

We revisit the causal effect of birthweight. Because variation in birthweight in developed countries primarily stems from variation in gestational age rather than intrauterine growth restriction, we depart from the widely-used twin fixed-effects estimator and employ an instrumental variable - the diagnosis of placenta previa, which provides exogeno...

We investigate whether accommodating job attributes influence the return-to-work probability three years after a cancer diagnosis. Using a combination of Danish administrative data and a survey performed among Danish breast, colon and melanoma skin cancer survivors, we find that the probability of returning to work is significantly and positively c...

Previous studies find significant negative effects of cancer on employment, with stronger effects for less-educated workers. We investigate whether the effect of cancer varies by skill requirement in the pre-cancer occupation, whether such heterogeneity can explain educational gradients, and whether cancer is associated with changes in job characte...

This paper uses data from the central admission system for Danish post-secondary education merged with other administrative data. Applicants for admission may rank up to eight educational programmes, and I focus on first-time applicants whose first-choice are bachelor's degree university programmes with restricted admission, i.e. with an admission...

We investigate the association between pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and return-to-work probability 3 years after a cancer diagnosis. We use a Danish data set combining administrative data and a survey to breast and colon cancer survivors. We find that the return-to-work probability has a negative correlation with pre-cancer job dissatisfaction wi...

For employees who get cancer and survive, the probability of returning to work may depend on their ability to work, potential earnings losses if they do not return to work, qualifications and job type, but also on characteristics of the pre-cancer workplace. This paper focuses on differences between public and private sector employees in the effect...

Focusing in particular on upper secondary education, this paper examines whether the relatively high level of expenditure on education in the Nordic countries is matched by high output from the educational sector, both in terms of student enrolment and indicators of output quality in the form of graduation/completion rates and expected earnings aft...

Performance is perhaps the most central concept in public administration research, and this article discusses theoretically and investigates empirically how we can obtain more consistent performance measures. Theoretically, we combine existing arguments in public administration with institutional theory and the sociology of professions. Empirically...

Socioeconomic inequality in return to work after cancer treatment and rehabilitation have been documented, but less is known about its causes. This paper investigates the role played by breast cancer stage at diagnosis and comorbidity. We used the comprehensive Danish Cancer Registry to follow 7372 women aged 30-60, who were in the labour force whe...

We conduct an econometric evaluation of a health-promoting programme in primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark. The programme includes health-related measurements of the students, communication of knowledge about health, and support of health-promoting projects for students. Half of the schools in the fourth largest municipality in Denmark...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between stage of incident breast cancer (BC) and personal income three years after diagnosis. The analysis further considered whether the association differed among educational groups. The study was based on information from Danish nationwide registers. A total of 7,372 wo...

The great majority of studies on the effect of school quality on academic outcomes do not take account of changes in student choices concerning effort if school quality, e.g. class size, changes. We show that empirical estimates of the ‘total’ effect of changes in school quality could be quite different from the ‘partial’ effect holding other input...

Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Canada and the USA are the OECD countries that spend most on education, measured in relation to GDP. Focusing in particular on upper secondary education, this paper examines whether the heavy expenditure on education in Denmark is matched by high output from the educational sector, both in terms of a large number of st...

The literature expects public service motivation (PSM) to affect performance, but most of the existing studies of this relationship use subjective performance data and focus on output rather than outcome. This article investigates the association between PSM and the performance of Danish teachers using an objective outcome measure (the students’ ac...

We analyze class-size effects on academic achievement in secondary school in Denmark exploiting an institutional setting where pupils cannot predict class size prior to enrollment, and where post-enrollment responses aimed at affecting realized class size are unlikely. We identify class-size effects combining a regression discontinuity design with...

We estimate causal effects of breast and colorectal cancer on labour market outcomes 1-3 years after the diagnosis. Based on Danish administrative data we estimate average treatment effects on the treated by propensity score weighting methods using persons with no cancer diagnosis as control group. We conduct robustness checks using matching, diffe...

We investigate whether job loss due to plant closure causes an increased risk of (cause-specific) mortality and hospitalization for male workers having strong labour market attachment. We use administrative data: a panel of all persons in Denmark in the period 1980-2006, containing records on health and work status, and a link from workers to plant...

The Danish national return-to-work (RTW) program aims to improve the management of municipal sickness benefit in Denmark. A study is currently ongoing to evaluate the RTW program. The purpose of this article is to describe the study protocol. The program includes 21 municipalities encompassing approximately 19 500 working-age adults on long-term si...

We estimate the effect of active labour-market programmes on the exit rate to regular employment for non-western immigrants in Denmark who receive social assistance. We use the timing-of-events duration model and rich administrative data. We find large positive post-programme effects, and, surprisingly, even most in-programme effects are positive....

We analyse the effect of active labour-market programmes on the hazard rate into regular employment for newly arrived immigrants using the timing-of-events duration model. We take account of language course participation and progression in destination country language skills. We use rich administrative data from Denmark. We find substantial lock-in...

Selection response of parents to low school quality, for instance large class sizes, is a major problem when estimating causal class-size effects, also in experimental and quasi-experimental studies. To address this problem a new identification strategy using within-school variation over time in the size of subject-specific classes is proposed. It...

To study the degree to which depression indicators based on register data on hospital and antidepressant treatment suffer from differential misclassification with respect to gender, age and social group. Data on 7378 persons were obtained by linking a cross-sectional survey of Danish adults aged 40 and 50 years with population-based registers. Misc...

With the considerable changes in population age-profiles, the preventive care of older people is becoming more and more important. We analyse the long-term effect of the provision of home care on the recipient’s ability to perform the activities of daily living (ADLs) and upon aspects of their well-being. Using regression analysis on a set of Danis...

We propose a method for computing indicators of the relative success of local authorities at integrating new immigrants in the labour market, taking account of differences in characteristics of immigrants and local labour markets. The indicator for integration success is based on mean duration from date of residence permit to start of an employment...

We propose a method for estimating indicators of the success of local authorities at integrating immigrants in the labour-market. The proportion of time in employment of individuals is used to measure labour-market integration, and we correct for differences in characteristics of immigrants and local labour markets using a two-limit Tobit model. Th...

We employ a regression-discontinuity design to identify effects on educational attainment after compulsory school of class size and the number of pupils per weekly teacher hour using administrative rules as instruments. We use Danish administrative panel data. Average class size is 20, about the same as in the US and most European countries. Restri...

When considering alternative subjects among which students have to choose, within-school variation over time in the size of subject-specific classes reflects random variation in the share of students preferring one subject over another. At 7 th grade in Danish schools, students must choose between German and French. The effect of French class size...

We investigate whether job loss as the result of displacement causes hospitalization for stress-related diseases which are widely thought to be associated with unemployment. In doing this, we use much better data than any previous investigators. Our data are a random 10% sample of the male population of Denmark for the years 1981-1999 with full rec...

This paper analyses the effects of the size of school districts on educational attainment of students after compulsory school in Denmark. Using administrative microdata for individual students and their parents, logit models for the probability of obtaining different levels of education are estimated where the explanatory variables include district...

We investigate the effect of school inputs in primary and lower secondary schools on the probability of eventually passing upper secondary or vocational education. Danish administrative register data for a large number of young people and their parents are used. Educational outcome and controls for family background are measured at the individual l...

This paper investigates determinants of local authorities’ school expenditure. Hypotheses are derived from an expenditure demand model incorporating a school cost function. The empirical analysis exploits the panel structure of the dataset (for the 275 municipalities in Denmark over the period 1984–1996) by Generalized Method of Moments estimation...

We investigate whether job loss as the result of displacement causes ill health. In doing this we use much better data than any previous investigators. Our data are a random 10% sample of the adult population of Denmark for the years 1981-1999. For this large representative panel we have very full records on demographics, health and work status for...

Analysing young people's educational choices, we derive and test implications of a relative risk aversion hypothesis: that educational choices are made so as to minimize the risk of ending up with a lower level of education than one's parents. These implications are in general different from what one would expect from human capital theory. We use a...

Relations for consumers' demand for paid and taxed services with close substitutes in the black economy or via do-it-yourself production are estimated. The tax wedge is included as an explanatory variable, since it is a proxy for the price of paid and taxed services relative to services produced by black market or do-it-yourself activities. On Dani...

We estimate relations for consumers’ demand for repair and maintenance of houses. Repair and maintenance services have close substitutes in the black economy and via do-it-yourself production. The tax wedge is included as an explanatory variable, since it is a measure of the price of paid and taxed services relative to services produced by black ma...

This paper considers several tests of orthogonality conditions in linear models where stochastic errors may be heteroskedastic or autocorrelated. It is shown that these tests can be performed with Wald statistics obtained from simple auxiliary regressions. Copyright 1997 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

A macroeconomic rationing model based on nested CES transaction functions for the goods and labour markets is presented. The model is estimated on quarterly data for the Danish private non-agricultural sector, using regime proportion indicators based on business survey information. The focus of the paper is on the method of estimation, which is a t...

The CES transaction function is derived from the Weibull distribution using less restrictive assumptions than hitherto used in the literature. The CES function is shown to have basically the same properties as the ‘exact’ transaction function derived from the lognormal distribution.

In recent years a large number of macroeconomic rationing models with smooth CES transaction functions have been estimated. In this paper we examine the derivation of such aggregate transaction functions from assumptions on the distribution of demand and supply across micro markets. Basic assumptions underlying the CES transaction functions are ill...

In recent years a large number of macroeconomic rationing models with CES transaction functions have been estimated. In this paper we examine the derivation of the simple aggregate CES transaction functin with two arguments from assumptions on the distribution on demand and supply across micro markets. The main purpose of the paper is to show rigor...

We estimate class-size effects and effects of students per teacher hour on employment and wages of labour market entrants. Our identification approach (using discontinuities in the relationship between grade enrolment and school resources) can eliminate bias due to endogeneity of school resources both between schools and grades and within grades. W...

Focussing on full-time, high-tenure workers, we investigate whether job loss due to plant closure causes increased risk of hospitalization for many different diagnoses. We use unique administrative data: A sample of all persons in Denmark who lost their job due to closure of plants in the private sector in the period 1981-2000, and a random 10% sam...

This paper investigates economic, social and demographic determinants of local authori-ties' school expenditure. Hypotheses are derived from a theoretical expenditure demand model incorporating a school cost function. The empirical analysis exploits the panel structure of the dataset (for the 275 local governments in Denmark over the period 1984-19...