IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/sunrpe/2016_0003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Building a path of equality to economic progress and macroeconomic stability - the economic theory of the Swedish model

Author

Listed:
  • Erixon, Lennart

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University)

Abstract

The Swedish Rehn-Meidner model is a unique economic- and wage-policy program for the simultaneous achievement of full employment, price stability, growth and equality. This article presents, specifies and develops the model’s underlying macroeconomic theory. The Rehn-Meidner theory is a synthesis between a flex-price Kaldorian model of profit margins and a Kaleckian model where profit margins are squeezed under full-employment conditions. The theory deviates from both Kaldorian and Kaleckian models by stressing the importance of low profit margins for productivity growth. The Rehn-Meidner theory and policy deserve a prominent place in macroeconomics even in the age of globalization and financialization. However, some weaknesses of the model make it necessary to modify the arguments for and partly the composition of its policy program.

Suggested Citation

  • Erixon, Lennart, 2016. "Building a path of equality to economic progress and macroeconomic stability - the economic theory of the Swedish model," Research Papers in Economics 2016:3, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2016_0003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.ne.su.se/paper/wp16_03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric J. Bartelsman & John Haltiwanger & Stefano Scarpetta, 2004. "Microeconomic Evidence of Creative Destruction in Industrial and Developing Countries," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 04-114/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-864, October.
    3. Dutt, Amitava Krishna, 1984. "Stagnation, Income Distribution and Monopoly Power," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 25-40, March.
    4. Messina, Julian & Strozzi, Chiara & Turunen, Jarkko, 2009. "Real wages over the business cycle: OECD evidence from the time and frequency domains," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1183-1200, June.
    5. Gylfason, Thorvaldur & Holmström, Bengt & Korkman, Sixten & Söderström, Hans Tson & Vihriälä, Vesa, . "Nordics in Global Crisis. Vulnerability and resilience," ETLA B, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, number 242.
    6. Acemoglu, Daron, 2001. "Good Jobs versus Bad Jobs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Lennart Erixon, 2015. "Can fiscal austerity be expansionary in present-day Europe? The lessons from Sweden," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(4), pages 567—601-5, October.
    8. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2008. "Understanding the Contributions of Reallocation to Productivity Growth: Lessons from a Comparative Firm-Level Analysis," ESCIRRU Working Papers 9, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Annika Alexius & Erik Post, 2008. "Exchange rates and asymmetric shocks in small open economies," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 527-541, November.
    10. E. Stockhammere & J. Michell, 2017. "Pseudo-Goodwin cycles in a Minsky model," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 105-125.
    11. Daron Acemoglu, 2010. "When Does Labor Scarcity Encourage Innovation?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1037-1078.
    12. Lennart Erixon, 2008. "The Swedish third way: an assessment of the performance and validity of the Rehn--Meidner model," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 367-393, May.
    13. Philip Arestis & Malcolm Sawyer (ed.), 2004. "Neo-Liberal Economic Policy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3393.
    14. Levine, David I, 1992. "Can Wage Increases Pay for Themselves? Tests with a Production Function," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(414), pages 1102-1115, September.
    15. Eckhard Hein, 2016. "Secular stagnation or stagnation policy? Steindl after Summers," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 69(276), pages 3-47.
    16. Peter Skott, 2015. "Growth cycles with or without price flexibility," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 374-386, July.
    17. Pollin, Robert, 2012. "Back to Full Employment," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262017571, December.
    18. Giannangeli, Silvia & Gómez-Salvador, Ramón, 2008. "Evolution and sources of manufacturing productivity growth: evidence from a panel of European countries," Working Paper Series 914, European Central Bank.
    19. Nicholas Kaldor, 1970. "Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Kaldor," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 1-7.
    20. Lennart Erixon, 2010. "The Rehn-Meidner Model in Sweden: Its Rise, Challenges and Survival," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 677-715.
    21. Lennart Erixo, 2004. "A 'third way' in economic policy: a reappraisal of the Rehn-Meidner model in the light of modern economics," Chapters, in: Philip Arestis & Malcolm Sawyer (ed.), Neo-Liberal Economic Policy, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    22. Nelson H. Barbosa‐Filho & Lance Taylor, 2006. "Distributive And Demand Cycles In The Us Economy—A Structuralist Goodwin Model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 389-411, July.
    23. Andreas Bergh, 2014. "Sweden and the Revival of the Capitalist Welfare State," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15717.
    24. 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.
    25. Lennart Erixon, 2016. "Is firm renewal stimulated by negative shocks? The status of negative driving forces in Schumpeterian and Darwinian economics," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 93-121.
    26. Odd Aukrust, 1970. "Prim I: A Model Of The Price And Income Distribution Mechanism Of An Open Economy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 16(1), pages 51-78, March.
    27. Storm, Servaas & Naastepad, C. W. M., 2012. "Macroeconomics Beyond the NAIRU," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674062276, Spring.
    28. Michal Kalecki, 1971. "Class Struggle And The Distribution Of National Income," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 1-9, February.
    29. Assar Lindbeck, 1993. "Unemployment and Macroeconomics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121751, December.
    30. Rudiger von Arnim & Jose Barrales, 2015. "Demand-driven Goodwin cycles with Kaldorian and Kaleckian features," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 351-373, July.
    31. Skott, Peter, 1989. "Effective Demand, Class Struggle and Cyclical Growth," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(1), pages 231-247, February.
    32. Marc Lavoie & Eckhard Hein, 2015. "Going from a low to a high employment equilibrium," IMK Working Paper 144-2015, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    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. Robert A. Blecker, 2016. "Wage-led versus profit-led demand regimes: the long and the short of it," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 4(4), pages 373-390, October.
    2. Rada, Codrina & Tavani, Daniele & von Arnim, Rudiger & Zamparelli, Luca, 2023. "Classical and Keynesian models of inequality and stagnation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 442-461.
    3. Codrina Rada & Ansel Schiavone & Rudiger von Arnim, 2022. "Goodwin, Baumol & Lewis: How structural change can lead to inequality and stagnation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 1070-1093, November.
    4. Eckhard Hein, 2017. "Post-Keynesian macroeconomics since the mid 1990s: main developments," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 131-172, September.
    5. Codrina Rada, Marcio Santetti, Ansel Schiavone, Rudiger von Arnim, 2021. "Post-Keynesian vignettes on secular stagnation:From labor suppression to natural growth," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2021_05, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    6. Araujo, Ricardo Azevedo & Dávila-Fernández, Marwil J. & Moreira, Helmar Nunes, 2019. "Some new insights on the empirics of Goodwin's growth-cycle model," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 42-54.
    7. Jose Barrales‐Ruiz & Ivan Mendieta‐Muñoz & Codrina Rada & Daniele Tavani & Rudiger von Arnim, 2022. "The distributive cycle: Evidence and current debates," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 468-503, April.
    8. Guilherme Klein Martins & Fernando Rugitsky, 2021. "The Long Expansion and the Profit Squeeze: Output and Profit Cycles in Brazil (1996–2016)," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 373-397, September.
    9. Daniele Tavani, 2023. "The Classical Model of Growth and Distribution," Working Papers 2311, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    10. Skott, Peter, 2023. "Endogenous business cycles and economic policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 61-82.
    11. Rudiger von Arnim & Jose Barrales, 2015. "Demand-driven Goodwin cycles with Kaldorian and Kaleckian features," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 351-373, July.
    12. Codrina Rada, Ansel Schiavone, Rudiger von Arnim, 2021. "Goodwin, Baumol & Lewis: How structural change can lead to inequality and stagnation," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2021_04, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    13. Stamegna, Marco, 2022. "A Kaleckian growth model of secular stagnation with induced innovation," MPRA Paper 113794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Lennart Erixon & Louise Johannesson, 2015. "Is the psychology of high profits detrimental to industrial renewal? Experimental evidence for the theory of transformation pressure," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 475-511, April.
    15. Mariolis Theodore & Konstantakis Konstantinos N. & Michaelides Panayotis G. & Tsionas Efthymios G., 2019. "A non-linear Keynesian Goodwin-type endogenous model of the cycle: Bayesian evidence for the USA," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 1-16, February.
    16. Christian Schoder, 2012. "Instability, stationary utilization and effective demand: A synthesis of Harrodian and Kaleckian growth theory," IMK Working Paper 104-2012, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    17. Nishi, Hiroshi & Stockhammer, Engelbert, 2020. "Distribution shocks in a Kaleckian model with hysteresis and monetary policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 465-479.
    18. Brenck, Clara & Carvalho, Laura, 2020. "The equalizing spiral in early 21st century Brazil: a Kaleckian model with sectoral heterogeneity," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 298-310.
    19. Laura Carvalho & Corrado Di Guilmi, 2014. "Income inequality and macroeconomic instability: a stock-flow consistent approach with heterogeneous agents," CAMA Working Papers 2014-60, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    20. Santiago José Gahn & Alejandro González, 2022. "On the empirical content of the convergence debate: Cross‐country evidence on growth and capacity utilisation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 825-855, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rehn-Meidner model; labor market policy; wage policy of solidarity; structural change; productivity growth; inflation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E11 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Marxian; Sraffian; Kaleckian
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:sunrpe:2016_0003. 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: Anne Jensen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/neisuse.html .

    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.