Carrier-induced group-velocity dispersion influencing the chirped pulses propagating in traveling-wave semiconductor laser amplifiers (TW-SLA's) is analysed theoretically in this paper. The chirped pulses will be compressed or broadened because of carrier-induced group-velocity dispersion when TW-SLA operates far below saturation. The relations among the TW-SLA parameters, chirp parameters and broadening factors are investigated theoretically. The results imply that TW-SLA's provide the possibilities to compensate simultaneously for the effects of both fibre loss and fibre dispersion in optical communication systems when used asin-line amplifiers.