IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/fiefwp/0207.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wage Theories for the Swedish Labour Market

Author

Listed:
  • Lundborg, Per

    (Trade Union Institute for Economic Research)

Abstract

This paper reviews the empirical literature on tests of different wage theories of relevance in particular to the Swedish labour market. The empirical results are confronted with the institutional changes in the Sweden during the last twenty years. Not much empirical support can be found for the competitive model, the shirking model or the insider-outsider model. The fair wage version of efficiency wage setting receives support, however. Efficiency wage setting appears to have become more important also for Sweden as a consequence of decentralisation of wage bargaining giving scope for firms to differentiate wages. Due to the obvious institutional importance, bargaining models of wage formation continues to play an important role for Swedish wage setting. Bargaining models combined with fair wage setting appear to capture much of present day wage setting in Sweden.

Suggested Citation

  • Lundborg, Per, 2005. "Wage Theories for the Swedish Labour Market," Working Paper Series 207, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:fiefwp:0207
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/fiefwp/papers/WP207.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fredrik Heyman, 2005. "Pay inequality and firm performance: evidence from matched employer-employee data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(11), pages 1313-1327.
    2. Larsson, Anna & Zetterberg, Johnny, 2003. "Does Inflation Targeting Matter for Labour Markets? – Some Empirical Evidence," Working Paper Series 191, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Pekkarinen, Tuomas & Vartiainen, Juhana, 2002. "Gender Differences in Job Assignment and Promotion in a Complexity Ladder of Jobs," Working Paper Series 184, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Nekby, Lena, 2002. "Employment Convergence of Immigrants and Natives in Sweden," Research Papers in Economics 2002:9, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    5. Arai, Mahmood & Vilhelmsson, Roger, 2001. "Immigrants' and Natives' Unemployment-risk: Productivity Differentials or Discrimination?," Working Paper Series 169, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Nannan Lundin & Lihong Yun, 2009. "International Trade and Inter‐Industry Wage Structure in Swedish Manufacturing: Evidence from Matched Employer–Employee Data," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 87-102, February.
    7. Arai, Mahmood & Thoursie, Peter Skogman, 2005. "Incentives and selection in cyclical absenteeism," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 269-280, April.
    8. Alexius, Annika, 2001. "How to Beat the Random Walk," Working Paper Series 175, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Nekby, Lena, 2002. "Gender Differences in Rent Sharing and its Implications for the Gender Wage Gap," Working Paper Series 182, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Karpaty, Patrik & Lundberg, Lars, 2004. "Foreign Direct Investment and Productivity Spillovers in Swedish Manufacturing," Working Paper Series 194, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Heyman, Fredrik, 2002. "Wage Dispersion and Job Turnover: Evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series 181, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Antelius, Jesper & Zetterberg, Johnny, 2004. "Intelligens och personlighetsdrag som förklaring till inkomst(löne-)skillnader mellan individer," Working Paper Series 202, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Skogman Thoursie, Peter, 2005. "Happy Birthday! You are Insured - Differences in Work Ethics Between Female and Male Workers," Working Paper Series 203, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Anna Larsson, 2004. "The Swedish real exchange rate under different currency regimes," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 140(4), pages 706-727, December.
    15. Clas Eriksson & Joakim Persson, 2003. "Economic Growth, Inequality, Democratization, and the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 25(1), pages 1-16, May.
    16. Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall & Andreas Poldahl, 2006. "Is there really an inverted U-shaped relation between competition and R&D?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 101-118.
    17. Mahmood Arai & Fredrik Heyman, 2009. "Microdata evidence on rent-sharing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(23), pages 2965-2976.
    18. Heyman, Fredrik, 2004. "The Employer Age-Wage Effect: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data," Working Paper Series 193, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Annika Alexius & Mikael Carlsson, 2005. "Measures of Technology and the Business Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 299-307, May.
    20. Alexius, Annika & Carlsson, Mikael, 2001. "Measures of Technology and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Sweden and the U.S," Working Paper Series 174, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    21. Arai, Mahmood & Heyman, Fredrik, 2001. "Wages, Profits and Individual Unemployment Risk : Evidence from Matched Worker-Firm Data," Working Paper Series 172, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    22. Bandick, Roger, 2004. "Do Workers Benefit from Foreign Ownership? Evidence from Swedish manufacturing," Working Paper Series 201, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lundborg, Per, 2005. "Wage Fairness, Growth and the Utilization of R&D Workers," Working Paper Series 206, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Selén, Jan & Ståhlberg, Ann-Charlotte, 2004. "Wage and Compensation Inequality — How Different?," Working Paper Series 197, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    3. François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2004. "Rent sharing and the gender wage gap in Belgium," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(3/4), pages 279-299, April.
    4. Alessia Matano & Paolo Naticchioni, 2011. "Is There Rent Sharing in Italy? Evidence from Employer-Employee Data," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 8(2), pages 265-279, December.
    5. Guy Navon & Ilan Tojerow, 2006. "The Effects of Rent-sharing On the Gender Wage Gap in the Israeli Manufacturing Sector," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2006.05, Bank of Israel.
    6. Wagner, Joachim, 2011. "Productivity and International Firm Activities: What Do We Know?," IZA Policy Papers 23, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2011. "Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
    8. Hesselius, Patrik, 2003. "Does Sick Absence Increase the Risk of Unemployment?," Working Paper Series 2003:15, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    9. Guy Navon & Ilan Tojerow, 2013. "Does Rent-sharing Profit Female and Male Workers? Evidence from Israeli Matched Employer–Employee Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(3), pages 331-349, September.
    10. Kampelmann, Stephan & Rycx, François, 2012. "The impact of educational mismatch on firm productivity: Evidence from linked panel data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 918-931.
    11. Richard Harris & John Moffat, 2011. "R&D, Innovation and Exporting," SERC Discussion Papers 0073, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Nicolli, Francesco & Vona, Francesco, 2012. "The Evolution of Renewable Energy Policy in OECD Countries: Aggregate Indicators and Determinants," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 130897, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    13. Reizer, Balázs, 2022. "Employment and Wage Consequences of Flexible Wage Components," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Mikael Carlsson & Julián Messina & Oskar Nordström Skans, 2016. "Wage Adjustment and Productivity Shocks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(595), pages 1739-1773, September.
    15. Åslund, Olof & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2005. "Will I see you at work? Ethnic workplace segregation in Sweden 1985–2002," Working Paper Series 2005:24, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    16. Maria Bas & Ivan Ledezma, 2010. "Trade integration and within-plant productivity evolution in Chile," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 146(1), pages 113-146, April.
    17. John S Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Annika Pfister, 2020. "Product market competition and employer provided training in Germany," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(2), pages 533-556.
    18. Luiz A. Esteves & Pedro S. Martins, 2008. "Is firm performance driven by fairness or tournaments? Evidence from Brazilian matched data," Working Papers 16, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    19. Cincera, Michele & Ince, Ela & Santos, Anabela, 2024. "Revisiting the innovation-competition nexus: Evidence from worldwide manufacturing and service industries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 586-603.
    20. Alessia Matano & Paolo Naticchioni, 2017. "The Extent of Rent Sharing along the Wage Distribution," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 751-777, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficiency wages; trade union models;

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:fiefwp:0207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sune Karlsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fieffse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.