In this article, I examine the effects of sudden and unanticipated refugee camp settlements on support for the populist radical right in Sweden, the Sweden Democrats, at both a fine-scale level-voting districts-and at the broader municipality level. By incorporating neighboring districts, I show that the electoral effects from exposure vary with spatial proximity and spatial unit of analysis. The results display an increase in support for the Sweden Democrats in areas exposed to refugee camps, with diminishing effects in neighboring areas. Additionally, the exposure effect is larger in areas that have experienced a high inflow of newly settled asylum recipients but smaller in districts with an overall higher share of foreign-born individuals. Over time, the findings point at converge or alleviating effects. Taken together, these findings suggest that recent changes in the refugee population-rather than the long-term presence of foreign-born individuals-are the more influential driver of support for these parties.

The Swedish COVID-19 strategy aimed to protect vulnerable groups through targeted measures, categorizing individuals aged 70 and above as high-risk. This study examines the impact of such group-based risk assessments on subjective health and virus-related concerns among older adults.We analyzed survey data from the SOM Institute for 68- to 71-year-olds in 2019 (N = 684) and 2020 (N = 726). Using ordered logit regression, we compared perceived health and virus-related concerns between individuals just below (68–69 years) and just above (70–71 years) the high-risk age threshold, controlling for demographic factors.In 2020, 70-year-olds reported significantly lower perceived health compared to their 69-year-old peers, a difference not observed in 2019. Furthermore, 70-year-olds exhibited significantly higher virus-related concerns than their slightly younger counterparts. These patterns persisted when expanding the analysis to include individuals aged 68 and 71.ConclusionOur findings suggest that the Swedish COVID-19 strategy, while aimed at protecting individuals aged 70 and over, may have inadvertently increased perceived vulnerability and health concerns within this group. Conversely, those just below the high-risk age threshold reported better health and lower virus-related concerns, highlighting potential unintended psychological consequences of age-based risk communication.

In this paper we examine the relationships between subjective well-being, age, and geography before (2019) and during (2020) the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing survey data, subjective well-being is examined through measures on i) perceived life satisfaction, and ii) self-reported health status. Given that elderly individuals, aged 70 and above, were at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus, we conduct further analyses with a special focus on this group of individuals. Our analyses show that older individuals have higher life satisfaction than other age groups - both before the pandemic and during the pandemic. On the other hand, older individuals report worse health conditions, and the difference in self-reported health status between elderly and younger people is even greater during the pandemic. In terms of geography, we find that elderly people living in larger cities have significantly lower levels of life satisfaction than those living in small agglomerations or rural areas - but report significantly higher health status - especially during the pandemic.

This thesis consists of an introduction followed by four independent papers. Each paper explores different aspects of opinion formation or voting behavior, using diverse data sources and unique geographical perspectives.

In the first paper, I examine the urban-rural divide in radical right populist support. The findings suggest that this divide arises from a combination of diverse population characteristics, such as the distribution of highly educated individuals (composition explanations) and location-specific factors, like population development and public service supply (contextual explanations).

The focus of the second paper is to investigate how perceptions of the capitalcity relate to various characteristics of one’s own locality. The results indicatethat inhabitants in non-urban or mixed areas, as well as those dissatisfiedwith their own region’s development, are more prone to perceive the capitalto have negative effects on their own area and the country overall.

In the third paper, I examine the electoral effects of refugee exposure due tounanticipated refugee camp settlements in neighborhoods. The results display that hosting refugees increases support for the radical right populist party amongresidents. These effects appear to abate with distance and over time.

Lastly, the fourth paper focuses on the role of newspaper ownership for thepolitical bias of newspapers. The results demonstrate that newspapers held by the same owner tend to exhibit a similar slant, rather than aligning their bias with the preferences of their local readership. During election periods, co-owned news-papers demonstrate an even greater similarity in their ideological slant composition.

Denna avhandling består av ett introduktionskapitel och fyra vetenskapliga artiklar.Artiklarna utforskar skilda aspekter av åsiktsbildning eller röstningsbeteende medhjälp av olika data och geografiska perspektiv.

I den första artikeln undersöker jag skillnader mellan stad och land i stöd för det politiska partiet Sverigedemokraterna. Resultaten i studien antyder att denna klyftauppstår av att stad och land dels har olika befolkningssammansättning såsom andelhögutbildade (sammansättningsförklaringar) och dels har olika platsspecifika egen-skaper såsom skilda befolkningsutveckling och utbud av offentliga tjänster (kontextuella förklaringar).

Den andra artikeln, som är samförfattad med Charlotta Mellander och Lina Bjerke,undersöker hur åsikter om huvudstaden varierar beroende på var man bor och denegna platsens egenskaper. Resultaten i studien indikerar att invånare i icke-urbanaområden liksom de som är missnöjda med sin egen regions utveckling, är mertroliga att ha en negativ bild av huvudstaden och dess påverkan på deras regionoch landet som helhet.

I den tredje artikeln undersöker jag de politiska effekterna av oförutseddaöppnanden av flyktingboenden i närområdet. Studien visar att mottagandet avflyktingar ökar stödet för Sverigedemokraterna bland invånarna i närområdet. Dessa effekter tycks minska med ökat avstånd och över tid.

Slutligen fokuserar den fjärde artikeln, som är samförfattad med Marcel Garz, på ägarskapets roll för den politiska biasen av tidningar. Studiens resultat visar att tidningar som ägs av samma ägare tenderar att ha en liknande ideologisk vinkling snarare än att anpassa sin bias efter preferenserna hos sina lokala läsare. Under valperioder visar samägda tidningar ännu större likhet i sin mix av politisk bias.

This study investigates the role of media owners for the political bias of newspapers in Sweden, using an original dataset on outlets, consumer preferences, and ownership between January 2014 and April 2019. We construct an index of slant based on similarities in the language between newspapers and speeches given by members of parliament. Our results indicate that newspapers held by the same owner tend to offer the same mix of slant, rather than aligning their bias with consumer preferences in their area of circulation. Owners are even less inclined to differentiate the slant across outlets before elections, when the political returns to persuasion are high. We find no evidence that owners impose a one-size-fits-all slant because product differentiation is too costly. In addition, we find suggestive evidence of owner-independent bias induced by the writers of opinion articles. The Swedish context illustrates that supply-driven slant cannot be ruled out in market-based media systems if the ties between media and politics are strong.

In this paper, we review and comment upon the development of the literature on diversity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In an overview of previous studies and various strands of literatures, we outline and argue that to better understand the intricate dynamic relationships between diversity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and regional development there is a strong need to further develop "the economics of spatial diversity." We further argue that this development may benefit from combining various literatures based upon sound economic micro-foundations, to develop a more absolute understanding of diversity and fulfill the need of more clear mechanisms for future empirical testing. Obviously, this is important both from a research point of view and in order to provide policymakers with a powerful set of analytical tools. We call for more analytical work and more high-quality empirical studies. With a set of papers, we believe this special issue to provide a contribution in this direction.

In this paper we use survey and register data combined to examine how the view of the capital city among those living in other regions relates to geographic factors and the development of the home region. Our findings indicate that individuals who perceive the development of their own region as “less advantageous” are prone to say that Stockholm has a negative effect on their own area as well as on Sweden overall. These individuals tend to live in regions with negative migration, farther away from the capital region, and tend to have lower trust for e.g., politicians and scientists.

In a number of recent elections in Western Europe, support for far-right populist parties has been significantly higher in non-urban areas than in urban areas. This paper answers the following questions; (1) Can the urban–rural divide in voting behavior be explained by the fact that urban and non-urban populations differ in terms of education, income and other individual characteristics of voters, or by variations in immigration? (2) Can variations in public service supply explain parts of the urban–rural divide in far-right populist support? and (3) How does population growth and public services relate to voting behavior when examining urban and rural municipalities separately? The analyses combine survey data on individual characteristics and register data aggregated on municipalities. The results in this paper suggest that voter characteristics and immigration explain a substantial part of the urban–rural divide. However, the propensity to vote for a far-right populist party is still higher in regions with lower population growth even when controlling for individual characteristics and immigration. When considering public service supply, the urban–rural divide is further weakened. The propensity to vote for a far-right party decreases with higher public service supply and higher share of immigrants. The findings in this paper thereby support the hypothesis that individuals in shrinking areas with lower access to public services are likely to respond to the deterioration of their location by casting a vote on the far-right (i.e., protest voting).

This paper examines whether subjective life-satisfaction is most strongly related to absolute or relative income in terms of either proximal neighbors or a wider aggregated region. The analysis utilizes two unique datasets - survey data on happiness in combination with finelevel income data for postal codes and municipalities. We find a significant relationship between happiness and both personal income and relative income position among nearby neighbors and more remote neighbors. Hence, being rich as well as being richer than others in the area increases the likelihood of being more satisfied with life. Above all, we find individuals’ level of life-satisfaction to be more strongly related to the income of people in the larger municipality than to the income of nearby neighbors.