IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/fistud/v45y2024i2p187-204.html

Components of the evolution of income inequality in Sweden, 1990–2021

Author

Listed:
  • Arizo Karimi
  • Charlotte Lucke
  • Mårten Palme

Abstract

This paper documents how the inequality of household equivalent disposable income has changed in Sweden over the period 1990–2021. We find that income inequality has unambiguously increased. Measured by the Gini coefficient, inequality increased from around 0.19 to almost 0.3 by the end of 2020. We then analyse the backgrounds to this change by measuring the importance of changes in different components of the overall income distribution: the wage distribution; the distribution of hours of work; capital incomes; income differences between labour market participants and non‐participants; income redistribution through income taxes and benefits; and, finally, the effect of increased immigration to Sweden.

Suggested Citation

  • Arizo Karimi & Charlotte Lucke & Mårten Palme, 2024. "Components of the evolution of income inequality in Sweden, 1990–2021," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 187-204, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:fistud:v:45:y:2024:i:2:p:187-204
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12367
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-5890.12367?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roine, Jesper & Waldenstrom, Daniel, 2008. "The evolution of top incomes in an egalitarian society: Sweden, 1903-2004," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 366-387, February.
    2. Per-Anders Edin & Bertil Holmlund, 1995. "The Swedish Wage Structure: The Rise and Fall of Solidarity Wage Policy?," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 307-344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Björklund, Anders & Waldenström, Daniel, 2021. "Facts and Myths in the Popular Debate about Inequality in Sweden," Working Paper Series 1392, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Richard Blundell & Amanda Gosling & Hidehiko Ichimura & Costas Meghir, 2007. "Changes in the Distribution of Male and Female Wages Accounting for Employment Composition Using Bounds," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 323-363, March.
    5. Mookherjee, Dilip & Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1982. "A Decomposition Analysis of the Trend in UK Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 886-902, December.
    6. Jacob Lundberg & Daniel Waldenström, 2018. "Wealth Inequality in Sweden: What can we Learn from Capitalized Income Tax Data?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(3), pages 517-541, September.
    7. Benjamin Friedrich & Lisa Laun & Costas Meghir, 2022. "Earnings dynamics of immigrants and natives in Sweden 1985–2016," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1803-1847, November.
    8. Lundberg, Erik, 1985. "The Rise and Fall of the Swedish Model," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 1-36, March.
    9. Lisa Laun & Mårten Palme, 2023. "Pension Reform, Incentives to Retire, and Retirement Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Swedish Microdata," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior, pages 325-361, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Salvador Ortigueira, 2013. "The Rise and Fall of Centralized Wage Bargaining," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(3), pages 825-855, July.
    2. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr & Locking, Hakan, 2000. "Wage Dispersion and Productive Efficiency: Evidence for Sweden," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(4), pages 755-782, October.
    3. Bietenbeck, Jan & Collins, Matthew & Lundborg, Petter & Majlesi, Kaveh, 2025. "Exposure to Inequality, Human Capital Investment, and Labor Market Outcome," IZA Discussion Papers 18289, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Daniel Waldenström, 2018. "Inheritance and Wealth Taxation in Sweden," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 16(02), pages 08-12, August.
    5. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr, 2000. "Bread and Peace Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 104(1-2), pages 149-180, July.
    6. Sen, Aariya & Sensarma, Rudra, 2025. "Winners and Losers: The Effects of Monetary Policy on Income and Consumption Inequality," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Francisco H G Ferreira & Sergio P Firpo & Julián Messina, 2022. "Labor Market Experience and Falling Earnings Inequality in Brazil: 1995–2012," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 37-67.
    8. Christian Bontemps & Thierry Magnac & Eric Maurin, 2012. "Set Identified Linear Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(3), pages 1129-1155, May.
    9. Svenja Gärtner, 2013. "German Stagnation vs. Swedish Progression: Gender Wage Gaps in Comparison, 1960-2006," LIS Working papers 586, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    10. Albers, Thilo & Bartels, Charlotte & Schularick, Moritz, 2022. "Wealth and its Distribution in Germany, 1895-2018," CEPR Discussion Papers 17269, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    11. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2019. "Salience of Inherited Wealth and the Support for Inheritance Taxation," World Inequality Lab Working Papers hal-02877003, HAL.
    12. Guido Erreygers & Roselinde Kessels & Linkun Chen & Philip Clarke, 2016. "Decomposing Socioeconomic Inequality of Health," EcoMod2016 9574, EcoMod.
    13. KAWAGUCHI Daiji & NAITO Hisahiro, 2006. "The Bound Estimate of the Gender Wage Convergence under Employment Compositional Change," ESRI Discussion paper series 161, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    14. German Blanco & Carlos A. Flores & Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, 2013. "Bounds on Average and Quantile Treatment Effects of Job Corps Training on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(3), pages 659-701.
    15. Paqué, Karl-Heinz, 1991. "Structural wage rigidity in West Germany 1950-1989: Some new econometric evidence," Kiel Working Papers 489, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    16. Takahiro Akita, 2002. "Regional Income Inequality In Indonesia And The Initial Impact Of The Economic Crisis," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 201-222.
    17. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-71, March.
    18. Skedinger, Per, 2007. "The Design and Effects of Collectively Agreed Minimum Wages: Evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series 700, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    19. Chi, Wei & Li, Bo, 2014. "Trends in China’s gender employment and pay gap: Estimating gender pay gaps with employment selection," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 708-725.
    20. Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2004. "China's Income Distribution Over Time: Reasons for Rising Inequality," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9jw2v939, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.

    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:wly:fistud:v:45:y:2024:i:2:p:187-204. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-5890 .

    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.