Funding awarded to a project on the Swedish model
Erik Prawitz and Mounir Karadja.
Mounir Karadja, researcher at the Department of Economics, has together with Erik Prawitz (Linneaus University) been granted funding from Ragnar Söderberg's foundation. They recieve funds for the project The Swedish Model: New data and methods to understand the impact of collective bargaining on workers, firms, and innovation.
The research project examines how the breakdown of the Swedish model, characterized by strong trade unions and collective bargaining agreements, during the twentieth century led to changes in the structures of wage formation, firms, and innovation. The researchers will collect and use microdata from digitized archives of collective agreements, statistics on wages and union membership, and information on patents filed by individuals and firms.
The first study in the project focuses on how the wage-setting process has evolved with regard to coordination across firms and sectors. In the second study, Karadja and Prewits will examine how workers respond to reduced wage dispersion. They aim to test the hypothesis that increased coordination directs workers toward more productive firms, which would raise productivity and steer innovation toward more labor-saving and skill-based technologies. In the third study, the researchers will analyze access to labor and how coordinated wage bargaining at labor market entry is related to education and intergenerational mobility.
As part of the research project, an open database will be created for the benefit of other researchers.