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Relative Demand for Skills in Swedish Manufacturing: Technology or Trade?

Author

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  • Hansson, Pär

    (Trade Union Institute for Economic Research)

Abstract

The rate of change in the share of skilled labor has increased steadily over the past 35 years in Swedish manufacturing. A closer inspection of the period after 1970 indicates that while relative supply changes of skilled labor seem to have been the main driving force behind the growing skill shares in manufacturing industries over the period 1970-85, an acceleration in the relative demand for skills appears to have propelled higher skill shares during the late 1980s and in the beginning of the 1990s. Consistent with such a development is the finding of an increasing degree of complementarity between knowledge capital and skilled labor and that Swedish manufacturing firms, in recent years, have invested heavily in R&D. There is also some support for the belief that intensified competition from the South has increased the relative demand for skilled labor. However, the impact appears to be small and concentrated to the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansson, Pär, 1999. "Relative Demand for Skills in Swedish Manufacturing: Technology or Trade?," Working Paper Series 152, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:fiefwp:0152
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    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/fiefwp/papers/WP152.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skill upgrading; Knowledge capital; Import competition; Outsourcing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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