We were curious to learn more about his research and what it was like to work on it. Here, Andreas shares insights from his doctoral journey and the work behind his dissertation.
What is your thesis about?
– The dissertation is about the regional perspective on wage inequality in Sweden, focusing on how wage inequality has evolved since the start of the 1990s across different local labour markets. I was particularly interested in tracing how wage inequality developed across different regional contexts and different periods of structural change. The thesis, therefore, applied an evolutionary perspective to trace regional path development across temporal and geographical dimensions to address the overarching question of how uneven development of regional economies has shaped intra-regional wage inequalities. Beyond the topic of inequality, the dissertation also centres around a methodological discussion on how we can approach geographical and historical dimensions in quantitative studies.
How did you come to choose this particular topic?
– How the economic landscape has changed over time and how it impacts local societies has been something that I have been interested in since I started studying. Then, during my master's education, I encountered the topic of wage inequality while reading Richard Florida's then-recently published book on the new urban crisis and became interested in how structural changes shape economic inequalities within and between places. From there, I brought in my interest in working with various methodologies to further ask questions on how we can study these developments empirically, which became the focus of both the first and second articles of the dissertation.
What also stood out was how deeply the financial crisis in the early 1990s affected Swedish regions and became one of the formative periods shaping uneven development in Sweden.
Has anything been particularly challenging?
– The biggest challenge was to develop a research design within quantitative methods that could capture both the geographical and historical elements in the uneven development of wages within and between regions. I often discussed this with my colleagues and supervisors, and it evolved throughout the project until it finally clicked. As I look back, this process of thinking more broadly of how I should approach the subject was also one of the most fun things about the entire project, and I learned a lot from the many discussions I had. In this regard, I really appreciated the discussions during the progress seminar with my discussants: John Östh, Rachel Franklin, and Emelie Hane-Weijman.
Have you discovered any interesting findings or results?
– There are many findings that I would say are interesting, but one that I keep going back to is how tracing the local development of wage inequality revealed a much more varied geography than the often-assumed divide between metropolitan and left-behind regions. Even so, it was also possible to find some common trajectories across regions. What also stood out was how deeply the financial crisis in the early 1990s affected Swedish regions and became one of the formative periods shaping uneven development in Sweden.
What do you hope your dissertation can contribute to?
– I would like to think that my research can contribute to a deeper understanding of how structural economic changes shape wage inequality at different geographical scales. By connecting the development of disparities between regions to those within them, and by demonstrating the variety of regional pathways, I hope the dissertation can contribute to an awareness of how these developments are interwoven and shaped by both geographical and historical contexts.
