Solveig Topstad Borgen

• Brodeur, Abel; Mikola, Derek; Cook, Nikolai; Fiala, Lenka; Brailey, Thomas & Briggs, Ryan [Show all 347 contributors for this article] (2026). Reproducibility and robustness of economics and political science research. Nature. ISSN 0028-0836. 652, p. 151–156. doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10251-x. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Science aspires to be cumulative. Reproducibility efforts strengthen science by testing the reliability of published findings, promoting self-correction, and informing policy-making1. Computational reproductions, whereby independent researchers reproduce the results of published studies, are an essential diagnostic tool2–10. Such efforts should have greater visibility11–16. However, little social science reproduction and robustness has been conducted at scale10,13,17–23. Here we reproduced original analyses and conducted robustness checks of 110 articles that were published in leading economics and political science journals with mandatory data and code sharing policies17,18. We found that more than 85% of published claims were computationally reproducible. In robustness checks, our reanalyses showed that 72% of statistically significant estimates remain significant and in the same direction, and the median reproduced effect size is nearly the same as the originally published effect size (that is, 99% of the published effect size). Additionally, 6 independent research teams examined 12 pre-specified hypotheses about determinants of robustness. Research teams with more experience found lower levels of robustness, and robustness did not correlate with author characteristics or data availability. Robustness checks and reproduction of analyses with existing and updated data based on 110 articles in economics and political science journals with data and code-sharing requirements found high levels of robustness and reproducibility and determined that robustness was not dependent on author characteristics or data availability.

• Brodeur, Abel; Borgen, Nicolai T.; Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Gugushvili, Alexi; Emirmahmutoglu, Aysil & Gavrilova-Zoutman, Evelina [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2026). Comparing Human-Only, AI-Assisted, and AI-Led Teams on Assessing Research Reproducibility in Quantitative Social Science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). ISSN 0027-8424. 123(22). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2524747123. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are transforming how scientists conduct and validate research, offering promise as tools to improve scientific reproducibility. However, computational reproducibility and error detection remain expensive and labor-intensive. We experimentally test how collaboration between researchers and LLM assistants influences the reproduction of quantitative social science findings across different levels of AI autonomy. We randomly assigned 288 researchers to 103 teams working under three conditions: human-only, AI-assisted (using ChatGPT as a collaborative tool), or AI-led (ChatGPT operating with minimal human oversight). Teams reproduced published results from leading social science journals, detected coding errors, and proposed robustness checks. Human-only and AI-assisted teams achieved comparable reproduction rates (94% vs. 91%) and performed similarly on most outcomes, except human-only teams identified significantly more major coding errors. Both substantially outperformed AI-led teams, which achieved only a 37% reproduction rate, detected fewer errors across all categories, proposed weaker robustness checks, and required more time. This autonomous approach, however, likely represents only a lower bound of AI capabilities. Despite rapid model advances, expert human judgment currently remains indispensable for reliable empirical verification. While AI assistance did not degrade most outcomes, it provided no measurable advantages and was associated with reduced detection of major errors. However, the 37% autonomous reproduction rate indicates that AI could provide value in settings where scale or cost constraints preclude human review of papers, even though general-purpose LLMs offer no immediate advantages for human-supervised verification.

• Midtbøen, Arnfinn Haagensen; Friberg, Jon Horgen & Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2025). Under the Radar: An Examination of Norway's Mixed-Origin Population. International Migration Review. ISSN 0197-9183. doi: 10.1177/01979183251405833. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the US and the UK, rapidly growing populations of mixed origins have constituted a key research site for decades. In most European countries, by contrast, the mixed-origin group has remained largely invisible within research on immigration-related inequality and especially so in its quantitative branch. Breaking this pattern, we zoom in on Norwegian-born individuals with one parent born outside of Western Europe and North America, a group constituting about a third of the country's overall mixed-origin population. Drawing on administrative register data and survey data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study in Norway, we assess their socioeconomic backgrounds, educational aspirations, and subjective experiences, and compare them to individuals with two Norwegian-born parents and two immigrant parents. Our analyses document a contradictory pattern that begs for future research: Mixed-origin individuals largely resemble their majority peers in terms of parental socioeconomic resources, but they lack the educational drive typical of the second generation, in terms of both subjective aspirations and actual educational attainments. In their social orientations and national identification, they are located somewhere in between the minority and the majority, but they experience similar levels of discrimination and non-recognition as those with two immigrant parents. We use these contradictory findings to discuss possible ways forward for a broader research agenda for mixed-origin populations beyond the US and the UK.

• Brini, Elisa; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Borgen, Nicolai T. (2025). Avoiding the eyeballing fallacy: Visualizing statistical differences between estimates using the pheatplot command. The Stata Journal. ISSN 1536-867X. 25(1), p. 77–96. doi: 10.1177/1536867x251322962. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Graphical representations of coefficients and their confidence intervals are increasingly used in research presentations and publications because they are easier and quicker to read than tables. However, in coefficient plots that include several estimated coefficients, researchers often use confidence intervals to eyeball whether coefficients are statistically significant from each other, which results in an overly conservative test and increased risk of type II errors. To help avoid this eyeballing fallacy, we introduce the pheatplot postestimation command, which visualizes the statistical significance across estimates of categorical variables in a regression model. pheatplot efficiently compares the significance level between point estimates and helps researchers avoid making wrong assumptions about whether estimates differ. Moreover, by representing p -values as continuous measures rather than binary thresholds, it provides the flexibility to move beyond arbitrary cutoffs of statistical significance. This article offers some examples that illustrate the functionality of the pheatplot command.

• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Borgen, Nicolai T. & Zachrisson, Henrik Daae (2025). Ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighborhoods: Differential effects on educational outcomes. Social Science Research. ISSN 0049-089X. 127. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103152. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The recent influx of immigrants to affluent Western societies over past decades has spurred a massive political and academic interest in immigrant integration. In this paper, we explore the role of neighborhoods in this integration process using population-wide Norwegian register data. Our findings reveal considerable socioeconomic disparities in neighborhood conditions among children from different immigrant backgrounds, underscoring the unequal opportunities experienced by these groups. While children of immigrants from high-achieving groups tend to reside in more privileged areas, those who face educational challenges are often concentrated in the most deprived neighborhoods. Furthermore, we find that the influence of socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods on 5th-grade school achievements varies across children with origins from different regions. Specifically, children with parents originating from Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the MENA region are less affected by neighborhood disadvantage compared to natives and other immigrant-origin groups. Supplementary analyses suggest that this resilience to neighborhood disadvantage is partly explained by the buffering effects of co-ethnic communities. In conclusion, the findings of this paper underscore that a nuanced understanding of the role of neighborhoods is needed to decipher social inequalities between not just children of immigrants and native-born children but also between immigrant descendants of different origins.

• Rogne, Adrian Farner; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Nordrum, Erlend Ingridsønn (2025). School Segregation and Native Flight: Evidence from School Catchment Area Borders. European Societies. ISSN 1461-6696. 27(3), p. 433–467. doi: 10.1162/euso_a_00021. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Although extensively theorized, determining the mechanisms that produce ethnic or racial segregation in schools and neighborhoods has proven difficult. We investigate one potential mechanism behind ethnic segregation; native flight from schools. In contexts where school enrollment is determined primarily by geographic proximity to schools, Native or White parents with a preference for schools with low minority concentrations may choose to move away from schools with higher minority concentrations among students, contributing to both residential and school segregation. Using detailed, population-wide, geo-coded register data on families and school catchment areas for elementary schools in Oslo, Norway, we investigate whether native parents move away from schools with higher shares of students with non-Western immigrant backgrounds. We first show that native origin families systematically move away from schools with high shares of students with non-Western immigrant backgrounds. Employing a Geographic Regression Discontinuity design, exploiting the fact that catchment area borders sort neighboring children into different schools, our results indicate that such moves may be causally linked to local school characteristics, not just their neighborhoods. This may contribute to segregation in schools and neighborhoods. However, the results are ambiguous and sensitive to model specifications, and more research is needed to draw firm conclusions.

• Holst, Cathrine; Christensen, Johan & Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2025). Gender Representation in Expert Advisory Bodies: Evidence from Norway. Politics & Gender. ISSN 1743-923X. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X2510024X. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Expert institutions are increasingly expected not only to provide the best professional expertise but also to ensure equal presence of women. Yet while descriptive gender representation in bureaucracies and courts is extensively researched, we largely lack studies of women’s presence on expert advisory bodies. Drawing on large-n data on the composition of Norwegian expert advisory commissions, the paper investigates and evaluates how the share of women on these commissions has developed over the last half-century. It finds that while overall gender parity was achieved in recent decades, women remain strongly under-represented among commission chairs, particularly academic chairs, and among academic members from the powerful economics discipline. Normatively speaking, the developments toward parity are promising, and we find no empirical indication that proportional representation and competence requirements are in tension. On the contrary, persistent gender gaps among economists on commissions and academic chairs may endanger adequate provision of expertise into policy-making.

• Brodeur, Abel; Mikola, Derek; Cook, Nikolai; al, . et; Andersen, Synøve Nygaard & Borgen, Nicolai T. [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2024). Mass Reproducibility and Replicability: A New Hope. I4R Discussion Paper Series, The Institute for Replication (I4R). ISSN 2752-1931. Full text in Research Archive
• Andersen, Synøve Nygaard; Borgen, Nicolai T.; Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Brini, Elisa; Frith, Michael James & Gugushvili, Alexi (2023). Replicating" State Action to Prevent Violence against Women". A Comment on Córdova & Kras (2022). I4R Discussion Paper Series, The Institute for Replication (I4R). ISSN 2752-1931. Full text in Research Archive
• Brini, Elisa; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Borgen, Nicolai T. (2023). Avoiding the eyeballing fallacy: Visualizing statistical differences between estimates using the pheatplot command. SocArXiv. doi: 10.31235/osf.io/fghcd. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2023). It's not all about the peers: Reintroducing school context to the school segregation literature. Acta Sociologica. ISSN 0001-6993. 67(1), p. 66–87. doi: 10.1177/00016993231154128. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper investigates the effect of attending immigrant-dense schools on student outcomes, which consists of the joint effect of immigrant peers and school context. The sorting of students into schools is not random, and a large immigrant peer effect literature uses school fixed effects to eliminate selection bias. However, keeping schools fixed also eliminates the effect of the school context and is accordingly unsuited to estimate the total effect of attending immigrant-dense schools. By using both a value-added approach and by drawing on application data to manage selection bias, this paper demonstrates that attending immigrant-dense upper secondary schools in Norway increases student dropout, even though a school fixed effects model indicates no detectable immigrant peer effects. These findings suggest that immigrant-dense schools affect students in other ways than through mere peer exposure, and that research on the consequences of school segregation should take into account the effect of both school context and peers.

• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Hermansen, Are Skeie (2023). Horizontal Advantage: Choice of Postsecondary Field of Study Among Children of Immigrants. Demography. ISSN 0070-3370. 60(4), p. 1031–1058. doi: 10.1215/00703370-10823537. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Educational expansion has raised the influence of sorting across postsecondary educational fields on children's future life chances. Yet, little is known about horizontal ethnic stratification in the choice of field of study among children of immigrant parents, whose parents often have moderate absolute levels of education relative to native-born parents but tend to be positively selected on education relative to nonmigrants in the origin country. Using rich administrative data from Norway, we study the educational careers of immigrant descendants relative to the careers of children of native-born parents. Our results show that children of immigrants from non-European countries have a higher likelihood of entering higher education and enrolling in high-paying fields of study compared with children of natives, despite having poorer school grades and disadvantaged family backgrounds. However, immigrant parents' positive selectivity provides limited insight into why children of immigrants exhibit high ambitions later in their postsecondary educational careers. These findings document a persistent pattern of horizontal ethnic advantage in postsecondary education in which ambitious children of immigrants are more likely to enter into more prestigious and economically rewarding fields of study than their fellow students with native-born parents.

• Borgen, Nicolai T.; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth (2022). The Counteracting Nature of Contextual Influences: Peer Effects and Offsetting Mechanisms in Schools. Social Forces. ISSN 0037-7732. 101(3), p. 1288–1320. doi: 10.1093/sf/soac023. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  There is currently a mismatch between the theoretical expectations of peer effects held by many scholars and the quantitative empirical literature. This paper contributes to the understanding of peer effects by highlighting the oft-overlooked conceptual distinction between social influences and a well-defined causal effect; peers may influence one another via several potentially contradicting mechanisms that result in small overall causal peer effects on educational outcomes. We exploit the idiosyncratic variation in gender composition across cohorts within schools to study offsetting mechanisms. Using population-wide Norwegian register and survey data, we find two distinct ways in which the share of girls in lower secondary schools (grades 8–10) affects academic outcomes. First, more girl peers improve the learning environment at school. Simultaneously, however, more girl peers reduce the students’ motivation for schoolwork. Such results suggest that peer effects stem from a complex process where various mechanisms are at odds with one another, and where the influence of peers on academic outcomes is a composite of different mechanisms. Overall, we find that more girl peers lower students’ school grades and reduce students’ likelihood of attending an academic track in upper secondary school (which qualifies for higher education). Supplementary analyses suggest that the achievement level of girls is the main reason for the gender peer effects found in our study.

• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2022). Masked by the mean: immigrants in school and differential effects on student achievements. European Sociological Review. ISSN 0266-7215. 39(3), p. 333–351. doi: 10.1093/esr/jcac035. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract Immigrant inflows to Europe have changed student compositions in and across schools. Despite the strong intuition that peers matter for student outcomes, a comprehensive literature finds nil or moderate effects of immigrant peers. This study explores three reasons for this mismatch. First, it uses quantile regressions to reveal whether estimates on the average of the outcome mask differential effects across the outcome distribution. Second, it estimates the effect of attending schools with different immigrant shares, which is a composite of peer effects and the effects of school traits. Third, it compares the effects on teacher-assigned grades and objective standardized tests to explore whether the effects of immigrant share are influenced by teachers’ grading practices. The results show that high achievers in schools with higher immigrant shares get better grades from their teachers, likely because they are assessed relative to peers with lower academic and socioeconomic levels. However, they show no sign of improved test scores. In contrast, low achievers obtain better test scores when having immigrant peers and this academic improvement is not explained by the general academic and socioeconomic level among peers. The findings demonstrate that effects on the mean outcome mask differential effects across outcome distributions.

• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Hermansen, Are Skeie (2021). Reaching Higher? Horizontal Stratification in the Educational Careers of Immigrant Descendants (https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/h8dtf/). SocArXiv. doi: 10.31235/osf.io/h8dtf. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2021). It’s not all About the Peers: Reintroducing School Context to the School Segregation Literature. SocArXiv. doi: 10.31235/osf.io/yc37h. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Borgen, Nicolai T. (2016). Student retention in higher education: Folk high schools and educational decisions. Higher Education. ISSN 0018-1560. 71(4), p. 505–523. doi: 10.1007/s10734-015-9921-7. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Borgen, Nicolai T. (2015). Folk high schools and dropouts from upper secondary school: effects of non-academic investments in dropouts. School Effectiveness and School Improvement. ISSN 0924-3453. 26(2), p. 153–168. doi: 10.1080/09243453.2014.896384. Full text in Research Archive

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• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Friberg, Jon Horgen & Midtbøen, Arnfinn Haagensen (2026). “Catching up – Losing the Edge: Educational Achievements and Ambitions among Children of Mixed Origin.”. Full text in Research Archive
• Nordtug, Maja & Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2025). Fagfellevurderingskrisen er krise for yngre forskere. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Fagfellevurdering — som er en essensiell del av akademia — kan ikke lenger behandles som en ekstraoppgave.

• Rogne, Adrian Farner; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Nordrum, Erlend Ingridsønn (2024). School Segregation and Native Flight. Evidence from School Catchment Area Borders. SocArXiv. doi: 10.31235/osf.io/xykdg. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Friberg, Jon Horgen & Midtbøen, Arnfinn Haagensen (2024). The perils of integration? Educational outcomes of the mixed origin population. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Fedeli, Emanuele & Triventi, Moris (2024). The effect of top and bottom achievers in Italy and Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2023). Ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighborhoods: Differential effects on educational outcomes. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2023). Norsk ph.d. i sosiologi rangert blant de tre beste i Europa. [Internet]. SV-nytt. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2023). Ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighborhoods: Differential effects on educational outcomes. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Borgen, Nicolai T. & Zachrisson, Henrik Daae (2023). Ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighborhoods: Differential effects on educational outcomes. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth (2022). Inntaksmodellen har trolig liten betydning for frafallet i skolen. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2022). Reaching Higher? Horizontal Stratification in the Educational Careers of Immigrant Descendants. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Hermansen, Are Skeie (2022). Reaching Higher? Horizontal Stratification in the Educational Careers of Immigrant Descendants. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Borgen, Nicolai T. & Zachrisson, Henrik Daae (2022). Ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighborhoods: Differential effects on educational outcomes. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Hermansen, Are Skeie (2022). Horizontal Advantage: Ethnic Inequality in Choice of Postsecondary Field of Study in the Educational Careers of Children of Immigrants. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2022). Flere slutter på videregående skoler i Oslo med mange minoritetselever. Hvorfor? [Internet]. forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Hermansen, Are Skeie (2021). Tough Choices? Educational Careers and Post-secondary Horizontal Stratification among Children of Positively Selected Immigrants. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Nicolai T.; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth (2019). The disadvantage of having high achieving peers: Gender gaps and the complex nature of gender peer effects. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Nicolai T.; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth (2019). Why having better peers is not always a good thing: The complex nature of gender peer effects. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Nicolai T.; Borgen, Solveig Topstad & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth (2019). The disadvantage of high-achieving peers: Gender gaps and the complex nature of gender peer effects. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2019). Masked by the mean: immigrant peers in school and distributional variation in student achievement. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2019). Masked by the Mean: A Quantile Regression Approach to Immigrant Peer Effects on School Achievements. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2018). Immigrant school segregation and educational outcomes. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad; Borgen, Nicolai Topstad & Zachrisson, Henrik Daae (2024). Ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighborhoods: Differential effects on educational outcomes. SocArXiv. doi: 10.31235/osf.io/y6krf. Full text in Research Archive
• Borgen, Solveig Topstad (2022). Segregated School Contexts, Peer Effects, and Inequalities in Education. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This thesis assesses the role immigrant school segregation plays for inequalities in education and provides insights into mechanisms that may aid our understanding of social stratification, using primarily Norwegian register data. The main body of the thesis consists of five standalone papers. The first study investigates whether the share of immigrants at school affects the likelihood of completing the academic track in upper secondary school. The paper’s findings suggest that a higher proportion of immigrant students reduces the likelihood of completion. However, this negative effect seems not to stem from exposure to immigrant peers but rather from other traits typical for schools with many immigrant students. The main contribution of this study is the conceptual and empirical distinction between immigrant peer effects and the effect of attending schools with a high share of immigrant peers. The results warrant a question of whether the education offered to students in immigrant-dense upper secondary schools is of lower quality than the education provided at other schools. The second study investigates whether the share of immigrants at lower secondary schools affects student outcomes. Similar to the first study, it distinguishes between immigrant peer effects and the effects of attending schools with immigrant peers. The paper’s main contribution, however, is investigating whether these effects vary across the outcome distributions. A conceptual takeaway from this paper is that conventional mean estimates may mask different effects across the outcome distribution. The findings suggest that low achievers improve their objectively rated national test scores from having immigrant peers. In contrast, high achievers show no clear sign of improvement on objectively rated national tests, yet teachers award them better grades if they attend schools that host many immigrant peers. The third study investigates whether estimates of peer effects may be composites of several and potentially contradicting peer influences. The results show that children get lower grades if they have high-achieving peers. This peer effect conceals that the presence of high-achieving peers improves the learning environment but simultaneously harms students’ academic selfconfidence and work effort. Our findings demonstrate that the total effect of peers on student outcomes consists of several partly contradicting influences and illustrates that only focusing on the total effects of peers may hinder insights into how peers influence one another. While papers 1 to 3 concern the mechanisms behind peer and school effects and, at large, the consequences of immigrant school segregation for children’s life chances, paper 4 examines the causes of segregation. Specifically, it assesses whether there is a so-called ‘native flight’ from neighborhoods motivated by parents’ school preferences. The paper’s results indicate that native-origin families systematically move away from schools with high shares of students with non-Western immigrant backgrounds. This ‘native flight’ process likely contributes to increased neighborhood segregation and school segregation. The fifth and final paper relates to social stratification between children of immigrants and majority children. The paper investigates the surprisingly high educational ambitions among children of immigrants considering their relatively low academic achievements. It documents such ‘immigrant optimism’ in post-secondary education as well, where immigrant descendants choose more prestigious and better-paying fields of study than their majority counterparts. The paper also assesses whether this ‘immigrant optimism’ may be explained by immigrant parents being positively selected on education from their origin-country. Parents’ pre-migration educational status plays a role in immigrant descendants’ academic achievements and upper secondary completion but contributes less to immigrant descendants’ tendency of selecting more prestigious and better-paying fields of study in post-secondary education relative to majority children.

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