| 1. |
- Molinder, Jakob, 1989-
(författare)
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Interregional Migration, Wages and Labor Market Policy : Essays on the Swedish Model in the Postwar Period
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish model is perceived as a successful framework for combining rapid labor market adjustment with low inequality. Formulated by Gösta Rehn and Rudolf Meidner and implemented from the 1950s, it has been associated with the peak in economic restructuring and interregional migration during the 1960s. However, there is little empirical evidence for this. This thesis consists of an introduction and four essays. It explores three aspects of the model from a long-run perspective: interregional migration, wage dispersion and labor market policy.Essay I uses new data to track interregional migration rates in the postwar period (1945-1985). The results show that the responsiveness of interregional migration to local labor market conditions remained stable over time; it was neither higher during the 1960s nor lower when migration declined after 1970.Essay II employs a regression-decomposition framework to analyze the evolution of wage dispersion. The results suggest that wage dispersion was stable from centralized bargaining’s introduction in 1956 to the late 1960s. Afterwards, there was a rapid decline, likely because of solidaristic bargaining.Essay III contrasts the implementation of the active labor market policy to regional policy. Following a decisive shift around 1970, the focus on north to south mobility was replaced with policies to stimulate northern employment. Declining rural support for the Social Democrats and electoral competition from the Center Party caused this shift.Finally, Essay IV is a case study about mobility subsidy usage in Västernorrland County using sources on relocation allowances from 1965, 1970 and 1975. The results indicate that in the 1960s there was strong selection into the program by young persons with good labor market prospects. However, the program’s use did not change after the regional policy shift in the early 1970s.The collective results suggest that the policies associated with the Swedish model were minor for economic restructuring patterns. The migrations of the 1960s and the decline in regional disruptions after 1970 should instead be explained by studying the consequences of structural changes, how regions were progressively affected differently and the possible role that government policies played in directing demand for labor across space.
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| 2. |
- Dahlkvist, Andreas, 1980-
(författare)
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Conflicting Contexts : The Implementation of European Works Councils in Sweden
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The European directive on the establishment of European Works Councils (EWCs) provides an example of how the implementation of EU-level regulation is shaped by national legislation and practice, and previous research on EWC implementation has stressed the role of national factors for the organisation and work of these information and consultation forums. This thesis addresses the EWCs from a Swedish perspective and aims to analyse the role of the national system of employee participation for the implementation of EWCs in the national context. Through an examination of the views and reasoning of national groups and organisations involved in the implementation, during the legislative process that preceded the national EWC Act as well as in the establishment and work of councils, the study illustrates how national factors shaped the handling of the EWC issue in Sweden. The findings of the thesis, which rest on an analysis of official documents and interviews, show how the national system of employee participation influenced the views and reasoning of national groups and organisations regarding how to handle the EWC issue. However, the results of the analysis also indicate that alternative influences, such as company-specific factors and the provisions of the EWC directive, were important during the implementation of EWCs in the Swedish context.
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| 3. |
- Jansson, Olle, 1978-
(författare)
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Industriell invandring : Utländsk arbetskraft och metall- och verkstadsindustrin, i Västmanlands län och på Bulten i Hallstahammar, 1946-1967
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the first decades of the post-war era, Sweden experienced a rapid increase in labour immigration. Many of these migrants found employment in the industrial sector, where they became concentrated. This concentration varied between different industries, but was amongst the highest in the metal and engineering industries. The aim of the thesis is to explain why migrant workers were concentrated in the Swedish metal and engineering industries during the post-war period, circa 1946-67. For this aim the thesis uses case studies, one on the regional level and another at the company level, in order to investigate and differentiate between different explanations.A varied set of different direct, as well as underlying causes and circumstances have been suggested in previous research to explain this uneven distribution of migrant workers on the labour market. Different explanations arising from these perspectives have been used in prior research with some success, but they rarely confront explanations from other perspectives, thus creating different narratives driven by different circumstances, causes, processes and intentions. The ambition of this thesis has been to seek explanations for a complex and changing historical process in post-war Sweden. In order to study this, explanations from previous research have been used to find the reasons and causes behind the concentration of foreign workers in the metal and engineering industries during the post-war era. At the same time, the results of these empirical studies are used to problematize and question these established explanations.The results have led to a somewhat different picture of the circumstances and reasons that shaped the labour immigration and the distribution of foreign employees on the Swedish labour market during the post-war period. The thesis particularly stresses that the possibilities and capabilities of the employers had a significant impact on the distribution of foreign workers.
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| 4. |
- Svanlund, Jonatan, 1979-
(författare)
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Svensk och finsk upphinnartillväxt : Faktorpris- och produktivitetsutjämning mellan Finland och Sverige 1950-2000
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to gain improved understanding of the income convergence between Finland and Sweden 1950-2000 with a focus on catch-up growth, wage formation, productivity growth, migration and structural change in a setting of structural and institutional differences on the factor markets. Earlier studies of Finnish and Swedish convergence has overlooked the international perspective and therefore missed the general European – US convergence during the period. The results shows that Sweden converged to 80 percent of the US productivity level in the early 1970s and is following US productivity growth thereafter. The Finnish catch-up growth towards the US continues until the beginning of the 1990s. This corresponds well with the convergence of labour productivity between Finland and Sweden which took place around 1970 and the gap was closed in the beginning of the 1990s. The convergence between the countries can therefore be understood from the catch-up growth against the USA and if the countries growth rates are plotted against their income level 1950 one can see that the two countries are well in line with other West European countries. This means that either country is deviating in a positive or negative direction during the period. This is to some extent in contrast with the view that has been put forward in the countries national economic historical writing where Finland is often since as a growth miracle while Sweden especially since 1970s is seen as a case of falling behind. In order to explain the convergence scenario structural and institutional differences on the countries factor markets is examined. One aspect concerns Barry Eichengreens hypothesis regarding wage moderation as cause of the Post-War European convergence. The wage setting system in Sweden has been put forward by Eichengreen as a raw model for the type of institutional setting that would promote wage moderation. One central finding in this thesis is that we can not find support for wage moderation for Sweden as the labour share of the national income rises during the phase of Swedish catch-up growth while the labour income share was constant and periodically falling in Finland. In contrast with the view of the Finnish low interest rate policy during the post- the actual real interest rate was lower in Sweden. There has also been a significant migration flow from Finland to Sweden especially from the 1950s to mid 1970s. In the thesis we find a positive and significant relationship between wage and productivity differences on industry level between the countries. This supports the conclusion that migration was leading towards factor price convergence between the countries. The shift-share analysis shows that there were higher gains for the productivity growth in reallocating labour on the Finnish labour market than in Sweden. This could be explained by the higher share of the labour in the agricultural sector as predicted by Peter Temin.
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