IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cnpexx/v19y2014i5p662-694.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What are the Policy Lessons from Sweden? On the Rise, Fall and Revival of a Capitalist Welfare State

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Bergh

Abstract

This paper discusses a number of questions with regard to Sweden's economic and political development:• How did Sweden become rich?• What explains Sweden's high level of income equality?• What were the causes of Sweden's problems from 1970 to 1995?• How is it possible that Sweden, since the crisis of the early 1990s, is growing faster than most EU countries despite its high taxes and generous welfare state?These questions are analysed using recent insights from institutional economics, as well as studies of inequality and economic growth. The main conclusion is that there is little, if any, Swedish exceptionalism: Sweden became rich because of well-functioning capitalist institutions, and inequality was low before the expansion of the welfare state. The recent favourable growth record of Sweden, including the period of financial stress (2008-10), is a likely outcome of a number of far-reaching structural reforms implemented in the 1980s and 1990s.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Bergh, 2014. "What are the Policy Lessons from Sweden? On the Rise, Fall and Revival of a Capitalist Welfare State," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(5), pages 662-694, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:19:y:2014:i:5:p:662-694
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2013.849670
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13563467.2013.849670
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13563467.2013.849670?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johansson, Mats, 2006. "Inkomst och ojämlikhet i Sverige 1951-2002," Arbetsrapport 2006:3, Institute for Futures Studies.
    2. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    3. Ritva Reinikka & Jakob Svensson, 2005. "Fighting Corruption to Improve Schooling: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign in Uganda," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 259-267, 04/05.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bengtsson, Erik & Molinder, Jakob, 2024. "Incomes and income inequality in Stockholm, 1870–1970: Evidence from micro data," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Elisabete Nogueira & Sofia Gomes & João M. Lopes, 2022. "The Key to Sustainable Economic Development: A Triple Bottom Line Approach," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Magnus Henrekson, 2014. "Entrepreneurship, innovation, and human flourishing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 511-528, October.
    4. Roberto Iacono, 2019. "The Norwegian Oil Bonanza and the Scandinavian Model in Comparative Perspective," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(1), pages 63-82, March.
    5. Junguang Gao & Tao Chen & Thomas Schøtt & Fuzhen Gu, 2022. "Entrepreneurs’ Life Satisfaction Built on Satisfaction with Job and Work–Family Balance: Embedded in Society in China, Finland, and Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 12-33, June.
    2. Scott Gehlbach & Konstantin Sonin & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2010. "Businessman Candidates," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 718-736, July.
    3. Imam, M. & Jamasb, T. & Llorca, M. & Llorca, M., 2018. "Power Sector Reform and Corruption: Evidence from Electricity Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1801, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Andersen, Torben M., 2005. "Product market integration, wage dispersion and unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 379-406, June.
    5. Komlos, John & Schubert, Hermann, 2019. "Les origines du triomphe de Donald Trump," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 26.
    6. James E. Rauch & Vitor Trindade, 2000. "Information and Globalization: Wage Co-Movements, Labor Demand Elasticity, and Conventional Trade Liberalization," NBER Working Papers 7671, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Holger Görg & Michael Henry & Eric Strobl & Frank Walsh, 2009. "Multinational companies, backward linkages, and labour demand elasticities," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 42(1), pages 332-348, February.
    8. Shrabani Saha & Kunal Sen, 2019. "The corruption-growth relationship: Do political institutions matter?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Johan F.M. Swinnen & Thijs Vandemoortele & Mara Squicciarini, 2010. "The Market for Policy Communication," LICOS Discussion Papers 27210, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    10. repec:ilo:ilowps:354173 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Brian Burgoon & Damian Raess, 2009. "Globalization and Working Time: Working Hours and Flexibility in Germany," Politics & Society, , vol. 37(4), pages 554-575, December.
    12. Hanming Fang, 2024. "Measurements, determinants, causes, and consequences of corruption: lessons from China’s anti-corruption campaign," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(1), pages 3-25, February.
    13. Sophie Webber, 2015. "Randomising Development: Geography, Economics and the Search for Scientific Rigour," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 106(1), pages 36-52, February.
    14. Robert C. Feenstra, 1998. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 31-50, Fall.
    15. Ann E. Harrison & Margaret S. Mcmillan & Clair Null, 2022. "U.S. Multinational Activity Abroad and U.S. Jobs: Substitutes or Complements?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 10, pages 235-253, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Lyon, Spencer G. & Waugh, Michael E., 2018. "Redistributing the gains from trade through progressive taxation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 185-202.
    17. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2004. "Innovation, Survival and Performance of Canadian Manufacturing Plants," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2004022e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    18. Jon Wisman, 2001. "Creative destruction and labor's options," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 51-76, January.
    19. Michael Breen & Robert Gillanders, 2012. "Corruption, institutions and regulation," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 263-285, September.
    20. Vetter, Stefan, 2013. "Delegating decision rights for anticipated rewards as an alternative to corruption: An experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 188-204.
    21. Yan Leung Cheung & P. Raghavendra Rau & Aris Stouraitis, 2012. "How much do firms pay as bribes and what benefits do they get? Evidence from corruption cases worldwide," NBER Working Papers 17981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:19:y:2014:i:5:p:662-694. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/cnpe20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.