Inward FDI and Demand for Skills in Sweden

Roger Bandick and Pär Hansson ()

No 208, Working Paper Series from Trade Union Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: We observe a substantial increase of foreign ownership in Sweden in the 1990s. Did that have any effect on relative demand for skilled labor? Has technology transfers often associated with inward FDI led to increased demand for skills due to skilled-biased technical change? Are there any grounds for the worries in the public Swedish debate that more skilled activities have been moved abroad to countries where the headquarters are located? We obtain support for that the share of skilled labor tends to rise in non-multinationals but not in multinationals that become foreign owned. Yet it does not seem to be any relationship between increased foreign ownership and the relative demand for skilled labor in Swedish manufacturing between 1986 and 2000. Interestingly, increased competition from low-wage countries, rather than inward FDI, has had significant impact on skill upgrading, and appears to have played a larger role in the 1990s than before.

Keywords: Foreign ownership; skill upgrading; wage differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 J23 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2005-10-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Inward FDI and demand for skills in Sweden (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:fiefwp:0208

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