Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Paper Series,
Uppsala University, Department of Economics

No 2004:11: Trends in the Transitory Variance of Earnings: Evidence from Sweden 1960-1990 and a Comparison with the United States

Magnus Gustavsson ()
Additional contact information
Magnus Gustavsson: Department of Economics, Postal: Uppsala University, P.O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract: I decompose the cross-sectional variance of male annual earnings in Sweden between 1960 and 1990 into permanent and transitory components. The transitory variance increased until the early 1970s, declined during the remainder of the decade and then rose again during the second half of the 1980s. The permanent variance declined over the whole sample period but its decrease was much more rapid up until the early 1980s than afterwards. Comparing the results for the transitory variance with evidence from the U.S. reveals sharp differences. Most notably, the transitory variance of U.S. earnings rose sharply from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. An important explanation for these dissimilarities appears to be labor market institutions. In particular, it is likely that centralized solidarity bargaining in Sweden imposed constraints on earnings instability during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Keywords: Earnings dynamics; Earnings inequality; Panel data

JEL-codes: C33; D31; J39

63 pages, June 8, 2004

Full text files

wp2004_11.pdf PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Ulrika Ă–jdeby ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:14:00.