1,721,358 research outputs found
The Employers in the Swedish Model The Importance of Labour Market Competition and Organisation
Get PDFThe way the labour market functions is a crucial factor in any analysis of the Swedish model. Full employment contributed to the growth of what were probably the two most important institutions in this model: centralised negotiations between the social partners and, secondly, the Rehn-Meidner model, involving pay policies based on solidarity with the low-paid. Here, we have examined the role of the employers in the rise, application and fall of the centralised bargaining model. In this respect, the Swedish Metal Trades Employers' Association (VF), the largest and most important employer organisation in the peak association SAF, was the actor whose interests eventually led to the model's demise. The principal cause was discontent over the way this bargaining model worked in practice. The engineering industries felt their interests were being neglected in the giant employer collective. This empirical investigation into an employer organisations's internal actions, combining economic history with organisation theory, shows the importance of the market mechanism for employer policy during full employment. They sought a solution to the problem of wage drift. Significantly, it began by helping to push through centralised bargaining in the 1950s. When wage drift subsequently showed a tendency to decline towards the end of the 1970s, this was seen as a result of more extensive local and regional organisation. Competition and wage drift, it was felt, could be handled better through local collaboration than through large-scale collective action. One of the institutions of the Swedish model had thereby met its end.Employers Swedish Model; Labour Market Competition and Organisation
Welfare Enhancing Marginal Tax Rates: The Case of Publicly Provided Day Care
Get PDFThere is a well established case for public provision of certain private goods when the government pursues income redistribution under asymmetric information about the skill levels of the agents of the economy. This paper higlights the role of tax funding of day care for children, which is a striking example of a valid case for public provision. We demonstrate that the optimal income tax should face alla agents with the (social) cost of the day care they need in order to earn futher income. In this sense day care should not be subsidised. It is simply paid for via the tax bill. However, such a payment scheme, rather than a day care fee, is crucial for alleviating the self-selection constraint of the asymmetric information, non-linear income tax model, as it imposes a burden of paying for superfluous day care on a mimicking high-skilled agent. Also, deviating from conventional preference assumptions, we show that heterogeneity of preferences for work and day care does not invalidate the Pareto improving properties of this kind of public provision.Day care; Marginal income tax; Public provision; Private goods; In-kind transfer; Heterogeneous preferences
Simulating the Future Pension Wealth and Retirement Saving in Sweden
Get PDFIn this paper the wealth consequences of the Swedish pension system in the transition from a defined benefit to notional defined contribution system are simulated with almost exact institutional detail, using life cycle profiles estimated from detailed longitudinal micro data. Projected wealth, including different types of pension wealth, are computed and compared between cohorts, gender, wealth deciles and occupational categories. Consistent saving rates and replacement rates allowing consumption to stay constant after retirement are computed. Two different macroeconomic scenarios are considered, one using stylised values for growth, inflation etc. and another using demographically based forecasts. Some conclusions are that the cohorts born in the 1940s are relatively favoured, and so are the wealthiest deciles. Stylised macro assumptions yield more optimistic wealth projections than those corresponding to demographically based projections.Future Pension Wealth; Retirement Saving in Sweden
Social Democracy Lost - The Social Democratic Party in Sweden and the Politics of Pension Reform, 1978-1998
Get PDFIn this paper, the latter-day Swedish pension reform of the 1990s is studied from a power-political perspective focusing on the involvement of the Social Democratic Party. Few episodes in the history of Swedish social democracy have been as widely celebrated as the struggles of the 1950s over the development of the pension system. The debates strengthened the collective affiliations of those involved and eased the task of explaining to voters how the political parties differed from one another at a time when social welfare was beginning to be viewed as political public property. In perspective, and as much research indicates, the institutional design of the Swedish pension system in terms of the so-called "income security principle" was to have far-reaching power-strategic consequences. By limiting the scope for insurance alternatives offered by the financial markets, and by guaranteeing the living standard of a broader stratum of wage earners, it contributed to the middle class's integration into the emerging welfare state. In addition, it strengthened the Social Democratic Party's standing with its electoral base, thereby helping to ensure the party's its long-term incumbency. Despite the heritage, a broad consensus of the social democrat submitted to the Swedish Parliament in 1994 guidelines for a pension system reformed in a different direction.pension reform; Social Democratic Party
A Leap in the Dark. From a Large Actor to a Large Approach: The Joint Committee of the Nordic Social Democratic Labour Movement and the Crisis of the Nordic Model.
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to examine the Nordic Social Democratic parties’ own efforts to manage the inner and outer challenges of the so-called Nordic welfare model. The relationship between what Social Democracy does and the shaping of the welfare state seems, quite simply, no longer as direct and unproblematic. How should their political endeavours be understood if they can no longer unquestioningly be described as an expression of a movement that builds, refines, or defends tooth and nail a welfare model of a particular Nordic type? How have the Nordic Social Democrats legitimised their actions in recent decades? What role has the notion of a Nordic model played in the change or transformation process that has taken place? In practice, the answers to these questions depend on developments in the national parties. Social Democracy in the Nordic countries is not a uniform subject. Although there are many common features, Nordic Social Democrats have always worked under varied conditions, sought different paths toward reform, entered into different coalitions, and faced different problems. There is, however, a common denominator for a more general line of reasoning to be found in discussions of the future of the Nordic model that began in the late 1970s within the Joint Committee of the Nordic Social Democratic Labour Movement (Arbetarrörelsens nordiska samarbetskommitté, SAMAK). This paper will focus on the activities of this Nordic co-operative body.Nordic Social Democratic Labour Movement; Nordic Model
Childbearing and psycho-social work life conditions in Sweden 1991-2000
Get PDFIn Sweden, a dramatic fall in fertility coincided with recession and high unemployment during the 1990s. Recent research has shown that the precarious labor market has been one factor contributing to women postponing family formation. Studies have also shown that during the 1990s, the degree of negative psycho-social stress in work life increased in certain trades (care and education, and commerce) which are dominated by female employees. In the present paper, I focus on the interaction between psycho-social work conditions as defined by Robert Karasek and the likelihood of childbearing. As data material, the Swedish Level of Living Surveys of 1991 and 2000 are used. The research questions are: (1) Does job strain affect the likelihood of having the first, second and third child? Are there any differences between women and men? (2) Are there any differences in the likelihood of having children between individuals employed in trades characterized by high levels of jobs strain vs low levels of job strain? Are there any differences between men and women? The results indicate that women working in high-strain jobs have a lower likelihood of having the first child compared with women working in low-strain jobs, even when several important factors are controlled for. No significant associations between job strain and the timing of the second and third child are found for women. For men, no significant associations between job strain and the births of children are found, at least not when relevant controls are made. Analyses of childbearing and trade indicate that women working in commerce are more likely to have their first child compared with women working in manufacturing. For men, the results indicated that those working in public service are more likely to enter fatherhood compared with men working in manufacturing.childbearing; psycho-social work life conditions; fertility - recession
Swedish parental leave and gender equality - Achievements and reform challenges in a European perspective
Get PDFSweden was the first country to introduce paid parental leave also to fathers in 1974, and this legislation has since then continuously been reformed in order to bring about a more equal parenthood. This study sets out to discuss the Swedish parental leave system and identify achievements, policy dilemmas and reform alternatives in a European perspective. The structure of parental insurance legislation, with earnings-related benefits and a long leave period, is often seen as a main explanation why Sweden has been able to combine relatively high fertility levels with high female labour force participation rates and low child poverty. In the perspective of changing demographic structures in Europe, with declining fertility levels and a growing number of elderly, the strengthening of dual earner family policies, including parental insurance legislation, may mitigate macro-economic and demographic problems by increasing gender equality and decreasing the work-family conflict. Despite the positive consequences, unresolved questions exist in the present parental leave legislation. The flexibility of the Swedish system, which still has extensive transferable leave rights, has the consequence that the lion’s share of parental leave days is still taken by mothers, among other things making it difficult for women to compete on equal terms with men in the labour market. Consequently, the gender-based division of parental leave may contribute to a preservation of traditional gender roles and inequalities. Another problem in the Swedish system is the work requirement for eligibility that excludes students and others with weak labour market attachment from the earnings-related benefits, possibly inflicting on the postponement of parenthood. Raising the minimum benefit could be one solution to enable childbearing among persons with weak labour market attachment, but this would also affect the economic incentives for paid work, and thus weaken the dual earner model.Parental leave; gender equality; reform challenges
Welfare States, Social Structure and the Dynamics of Poverty Rates. A comparative study of 16 countries, 1980-2000.
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is twofold. The primary purpose is to try and explain both the temporal and the spatial variation of poverty rates in terms of unemployment insurance indicators and structural/sociodemographic factors. Secondly, the paper aims to test the 'convergence hypothesis' of the poverty rate, i.e. whether or not poverty rates in modern welfare states have converged in recent decades. The analyses tentatively suggest that structural change in terms of the unemployment rate, the proportion of single-earner households, the female labour-force participation rate, and the proportion of families with children primarily explains the temporal variation in poverty rates. The unemployment insurance factors primarily explain the spatial variation, i.e. variation between countries. In part, however, the temporal variation is explained but the cuts in net replacements in unemployment insurance. This factor alone explains a larger share of the overall variance than all the structural factors put together. Where the convergence hypothesis is concerned, a random-effects model is proposed as a statistical tool for testing convergence (and disperson). The results of this analysis suggest that for the 16 countries and the time frame under review the convergence hypothesis must be rejected, an outcome that is in line with some other analyses presented recently.Welfare States; Social Structure; Poverty Rates
Equity, Justice, Interdependence: Intergenerational Transfers and the Ageing Population
Get PDFThe increase in the ratio of the elderly to the working age population as the demographic transition of low fertility and low mortality proceeds, has spurred a discussion concerning the equity of intergenerational transfers. The central question is if and how the state can afford the pensions and healthcare costs for growing older populations, and who should carry the burden. To a large extent, focus has been on public transfers while neglecting private transfers within families. There is also an obvious tendency of considering the impact of ageing in terms of pensions while health care has gained a lot less attention. A gender approach shows to be fruitful in the analysis of the costs and benefits of intergenerational transfers.equity; justice; interdependence; intergenerational transfers; ageing population
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