Virtual: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7905645674
Codi: 1984

Title.- Research on Swedish Register Data – prospects and limitations

Abstract.- Data from administrative registers have been a key resource for social science research in Sweden, as in other Scandinavian countries, addressing vital societal issues within the context of the Swedish welfare model. But register data can also be useful in studies addressing more general issues in the social sciences and a vital resource in cross-national comparative studies.
The Swedish registers include individual and longitudinal records with high time-space resolution for all residents, including rich information on socio-economic, demographic and health conditions, and moreover with links to family members, place of residence and workplace. Thus, the registers provide excellent opportunities for quantitative analyses of long-term trends and statistical associations and causal effects.
However, legal and practical restrictions, as well as the country-specific characteristics of the information, limit to some extent the prospects for cross-national comparative research. The data are only provided to ethically approved projects at Swedish universities, but the data can be accessible also for participants in these projects who are working at universities in other EU countries. The seminar provides an overview of Swedish register data and discusses the prospects and limitations for using register data in international and comparative research.