William Skoglund
I am a PhD candidate at the Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. I'm also affiliated with the Urban Lab at Uppsala University. My research interests focus on historical inequality, wage growth, labor markets and unions. In my research I use historical microdata to answer questions about the role of unions in the labor market, the determinants of inequality, and institutional as well as structural change in the labor market.
Work in progress:
Bargaining for a Bite: Exploring the Evolution of Minimum Wages in Sweden
In this paper I estimate the minimum wage bite for several industries in Sweden using new data on nationally bargained minimum wage rates. I show that the importance of centralized bargaining increased only after 1960 and challenge previous assumptions about centralized bargaining. In turn using this new series on the minimum wage bite I argue that national agreements likely played only a limited role in structural change during the 20th century. Instead I propose looking at different wage policies and aspects of agreements to capture the economic effects of centralized bargaining.
Link to working paper coming soon
Regional Labor Market Structure During Industrialization
With Jakob Molinder, Johan Ericsson & Thor Berger
In this paper we use a novel dataset on plants to estimate local labor market concentration throughout the second industrial revolution. We combine existing data from the 19th century with new plant-level data for the first half of the 20th century to understand how labor market concentration developed. We also use census and taxation records to understand how individuals with different degrees of mobility were affected by monopsony.
Under review:
The Union Wage Effect at the Dawn of the Great Levelling: Evidence from interwar Sweden
R&R at Explorations in Economic History
In this paper I use a new plant-level dataset to investigate the relationship between wages and the regional strength of unions. Using a shift-share, or ’Bartik’, instrumental variables approach I disentangle the causal effect of union strength on wage levels. I find statistically and economically significant, heterogenous, union wage effects for men with the bottom of the distribution being impacted by union density and the top two thirds being unaffected. I find a negative effect around the median for women and argue that unions in general were uninterested in the women’s issue and were organisations mostly by men, for men. The paper contributes to the literature by providing the only evidence of a union wage effect in Sweden and perhaps the earliest union wage effect found anywhere - highlighting the importance of unions in shaping labor market outcomes in the early 20th century and showing that union wage effects have to be understood in their historical context.
The Sonoran Land Grab: Development of Wealth in 19th Century Sonora
With Diego Castañeda Garza and Jonatan Andersson.
R&R at the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History
In this article, we investigate the effect of encroachment policies on wealth in late 19th century conducted by the Mexican state in the state of Sonora. Using a novel database of will inventories from the Mexican state of Sonora, we find that the upper-class saw large wealth gains as a result of access to new agricultural land and irrigation. We argue that encroachment policies had a substantial effect on wealth but that this effect is heterogenous across social groups. We highlight the role of institutions in shaping wealth and inequality in the early periods of American economic development.
