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| Abstract |
The changes in economic policy towards a more restrictive and anti-inflationary macro-economic policy, the reorientation of active labour market policies towards supply oriented measures and the structural reforms undertaken in the tax and social protection systems during the 1990s suggest a revival and renaissance of the traditional Swedish model. The modifications in Swedish industrial relations, in particular the clear tendency to a re-coordination of collective bargaining have also played a vital role in the Swedish recovery. These new developments appear to respond to a three-pronged objective: ensuring industrial peace; limiting the impact of transaction costs associated with the absence of coordination mechanisms and the negative externalities on employment and firm competitiveness of uncontrolled wage drift; and finally guaranteeing a principle of subsidiarity making it possible to adapt the provisions contained in industry-wide collective agreements to the productive and competitive constraints of Swedish companies. The various reforms of the social protection system undertaken during the 1990s have essentially taken the form of a temporary reduction of income replacement rates and, with the notable exception of the restructuring of the tax and pension system, have left the Swedish welfare state system almost intact. The Swedish welfare state remains, by international standards, still clearly universal and inclusive in nature and still enjoys a high level of across the board political and public support. The reshaping of the pension and the tax systems aiming at strengthening work incentives are also clearly in line with the general philosophy of the original Swedish model favouring integrative transitions instead of passive support and social exclusion.
The recent modifications of the Swedish model constitute an interesting advance, creating an institutional framework favourable to the emergence of negotiated flexibility and a return towards a more balanced economic and employment growth. In our view, these developments reinforce the coherence of the Swedish Model and the robustness of its social cohesion.
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| Related research |
Find related papers by JEL classification:
J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
J58 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Public Policy
P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-30.