Causes of Wage Increases in Swedish Manufacturing. A Remarkable Case of Regular Behaviour

The present study is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the aggregate wage dynamics of Swedish manufacturing. It contains three essential results: •a rigorous search theoretical model of the wage behaviour of firms is presented and adapted for application to aggregate data •the implications of the model are confirmed by Swedish data for manufacturing industry and a stable wage drift equation is demonstrated to have existed since the mid-sixties •the model is consistent with the findings of earlier postwar empirical research on wage drift in Sweden and provides them with a more satisfactory theoretical interpretation.