The Role of Migration in Regional Wage Convergence: Evidence from Sweden 1860–1940

Enflo, KerstinLund University,Lunds universitet,Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen,Ekonomihögskolan,Department of Economic History,Lund University School of Economics and Management, LUSEM (författare)

Sweden experienced a decline in inter-county real wage differentials for agricultural workers between 1860 and 1940, historical evidence of early labour market integration well before widespread unionization in agriculture occurred. By means of dynamic panel data analysis, this paper examines whether internal and external migration caused real wage beta convergence across Swedish counties. To account for statistical problems such as endogeneity of migration, time-invariant county characteristics and autocorrelation in the regression model, we adjust our estimates using fixed effects, instrumental variables and GMM. The preferred model shows that both internal and external migration contributed to wage convergence before the First World War and internal migration mainly during the interwar years. The agglomeration effects of urbanization were not sufficiently pervasive to offset the labour supply effects of internal and external migration.

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Ekonomi och näringsliv Ekonomisk historia hsv//swe
SOCIAL SCIENCES Economics and Business Economic History hsv//eng
wage convergence
migration
panel data
Migration; Wage convergence; Labor market integration; Instrumental variables; GMM

Lundh, ChristerGothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Lund University,Lunds universitet,Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen,Ekonomihögskolan,Department of Economic History,Lund University School of Economics and Management, LUSEM,Institutionen för ekonomi och samhälle, Ekonomisk historia,Department of Economy and Society, Economic History(Swepub:gu)xlchrx (författare)
Prado, Svante,1974Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för ekonomi och samhälle, Ekonomisk historia,Department of Economy and Society, Economic History(Swepub:gu)xlasva (författare)
Ekonomisk-historiska institutionenEkonomihögskolan (creator_code:org_t)

Av författaren/redakt...: Enflo, Kerstin; Lundh, Christer; Prado, Svante, 1 ...

Om ämnet

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP: SAMHÄLLSVETENSKA ...; och Ekonomi och näri ...; och Ekonomisk histor ...

Kungliga biblioteket hanterar dina personuppgifter i enlighet med EU:s dataskyddsförordning (2018), GDPR. Läs mer om hur det funkar här.
Så här hanterar KB dina uppgifter vid användning av denna tjänst.