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Ulf Gerdtham. Photo.

Ulf Gerdtham

Professor

Ulf Gerdtham. Photo.

Immigrant-Native Wage Gap in Sweden : Do Personality Traits Matter?

Author

  • Wazah Pello-Esso
  • Ulf Gerdtham
  • Sara Larsson Lönn
  • Jan Sundquist
  • Kristina Sundquist

Summary, in English

Sweden has an immigrant-native wage gap. Although the impact of educational attainment and other variables have been studied, the impact of specific personality traits analyzed separately on the wage gap remains poorly understood. In this study, we used a unique dataset that usually contains unobserved personality traits evaluated by psychologists during the Swedish military conscription, as well as post-conscription labor market data to examine whether and to what extent heterogeneity in four different personality traits contributes to disparities in wages among men born in Sweden (both Swedish-born parents) and naturalized men born outside EU-15. The sample consisted of 278,660 males (6% with a foreign background) and was based on the 1975–1990 birth cohorts. The findings show that two of the four personality traits, i.e., intensity and emotional stability, significantly contribute to the immigrant-native wage gap. Men born outside the EU-15 received lower returns (2–3%) from these traits compared to men born in Sweden. The difference in returns from these traits was robust across the sensitivity analyses. Our overall conclusion is that specific personality traits play a role in the immigrant-native wage gap.

Department/s

  • Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology
  • LU Profile Area: Proactive Ageing
  • Health Economics
  • EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
  • LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre

Publishing year

2025

Language

English

Pages

467-489

Publication/Series

Journal of International Migration and Integration

Volume

26

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • International Migration and Ethnic Relations
  • Economics

Keywords

  • Immigrant-native wage gap
  • Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition
  • Personality traits

Status

Published

Research group

  • Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology
  • Health Economics

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1488-3473