Published 14 March 2023 at 12.47
Domestic. There is a risk that people benefit if they have relatives in important positions in the public sector, shows a new dissertation at Linköping University. The conclusion is that so-called nepotism can be an underestimated problem that needs more attention in Sweden.
Share the article
TwittraShare
Sweden is usually classified as a country where the degree of corruption is low.
But critics believe that corruption in the country may be underestimated. This is partly because the rankings that are made miss forms that are more difficult to detect and that have a less tangible impact on people's daily lives. One such is when politicians or civil servants make decisions that illegally favor friends or relatives, so-called nepotism or friendship corruption.
In order to investigate this, the researcher Emanuel Wittberg has analyzed register data on the entire Swedish population in his doctoral dissertation. It is, for example, about where they work, what kind of education they have and who they are related to.
The results show that individuals with parents or siblings in authorities or rental companies have a greater chance of getting jobs or apartments. There are also signs that local companies can benefit from public procurement.
Both for apartments in a given municipal housing company and jobs in a given municipality or government authority, there is between a 2 and 4 percentage point increased chance. The difference is statistically guaranteed.
In order to clear from factors other than nepotism, Emanuel Wittberg has compared individuals who are similar to each other but where some have contacts and others do not.
Despite that, it does not work to avoid that some uncertainty remains, as not all information is available in the register data. He therefore believes that the result shows where there is a risk of nepotism. However, it is not possible to say for sure that it is about that in every single case.