Evolving Geographies of Economic Inequality : Continuity and Change in Wage Structures Across Sweden, 1990 –2018
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The transformational change that ushered in what became known as the knowledge economy has led to widespread deindustrialisation of regional economies. It has reshaped the foundations of local labour markets and shifted the momentum of regional uneven development and wage inequalities. Much of the academic debate, however, has either been grounded in national-level studies of wage disparities or focused on regional divergence in economic development.This dissertation aims to advance our understanding of structural changes in regional wage disparities, and does so in two ways. First, it problematises the assumptions that national-level development is intrinsically present across the regional context. Second, it advances an evolutionary perspective on the development of economic inequality at the regional scale. The main research question of the dissertation, thus, is “how has the uneven development of regional economies shaped intra-regional wage inequalities across different geographies?” To answer this question, a set of three sub-questions was identified that explore: 1) To what extent and how do distinct pathways characterise the changing geography of wage inequalities? 2) How and to what extent are regional pathways of wage disparities related to phases of economic development? 3) How does the tradable sector relate to and shape the different regional pathways in wage inequality? To answer these questions, the dissertation draws on an evolutionary perspective on regional uneven development, with a specific emphasis on how regional path development unfolds and its links to transformational change. In doing so, the dissertation also advances a careful engagement with both the temporal and geographical aspects of economic development and inequality.Empirically, the dissertation finds first that the geography of wage inequality in Sweden has not been characterised solely by the theorised growing divide between metropolitan and left-behind regions. Instead, there is greater variety across the regional hierarchy, with both positive and negative path developments. While examining the urban-rural divide in wage structures, the dissertation also problematised standard approaches to operationalising scale in order to capture these patterns. Second, it finds that the development of wage disparities and the underlying employment structure has not been linear. The research shows how structural crises shift the momentum of regional path development and, consequently, uneven development and the geographies of wage inequality. Lastly, the dissertation further identifies a close association between the fate of the tradeable sector and its restructuring in shaping the probability that regions experience downgrading or upgrading outcomes. Deindustrialisation was associated with a noticeable decline in the tradeable employment base, which was found to be detrimental to regional path development, whereas retaining this base yielded relatively better employment opportunities locally. Moreover, if it were not for the substantial presence of the public sector among Swedish regions, many more local labour markets would either experience downgrading or polarising outcomes.
Author: Erlström, Andreas
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7154922888