The evolution of the Swedish wage structure: new evidence for 1992-2001

Changes in the Swedish wage structure from 1992 to 2001 are investigated and placed in a longer-term perspective. The results show that the increase in overall wage dispersion that began in the early 1980s have continued during the 1990s, and that the increase during the 1990s is driven by increased wage differentials in both the lower and upper half of the wage distribution. The results also show that the university wage premium in Sweden has exhibited a clearly positive trend since the early 1980s whilst the returns to lower levels of education have been constant since the mid 1970s. Unlike the 1980s, relative supply changes do not appear to have been responsible for the rise in the university wage premium over the most recent decade.