The Development of Labour’s Share in the Swedish Transport and Communication Sector 1920-2000

Abstract: Most OECD-countries, including Sweden, have during the last decades experienced a declining trend in the labour’s share – the ratio of incomes from employment in relation to the economy’s total income (GDP). This thesis analyses the declining labour’s share of the Swedish transport and communication sector 1920-2000. The transport and communication sector has gone through changes of importance to the total economy due to the introduction of railways, automobiles and telecommunications. The sector has also transformed from being a sector of large public-control into becoming a more competitive and liberalized market. The causal effect of openness of trade, competition, GDP growth and inflation to labour’s share is analysed through regressions of OLS and maximum likelihood. The result indicates that GDP growth and inflation have a negative impact on labour’s share, while no econometric relation can be stated between openness of trade, competitiveness and the declining labour’s share.