Population, Economy, and Welfare in Sweden

Tommy Bengtsson The Swedish welfare model of the 1960s and 1970s excited great interest among many other countries. Today it still is an ideal image for some but a warning for many others. The reason why opinion about the Swedish welfare model has changed is primarily Sweden's financial problems, which are associated with a badly financed and excessively large public sector. It is argued that the size of the budget deficit is a great problem in itself, but also, and perhaps more importantly, that the large public sector has negative effects on the entire economy since it lead to inefficient allocation of resources. A first step in order to solve these problems is to examine how they arose. The questions then are to what extent the large public sector which Sweden has today results from social entitlements which have come into existence since the 1960s, from the maturing of welfare systems decided upon earlier, from unfavourable demographic developments, or from economic stagnation, and how these factors are interlinked. What is quite clear is that Sweden has had very low economic growth during the 1970s and 1980s compared with the preceding period. But so have many other industrial countries, without their having in consequence found themselves in diffi culties as great as Sweden's. Therefore economic stagnation alone cannot explain Sweden's situation.

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The Swedish welfare model has changed since the 1970s primarily due to Sweden's financial problems, which are associated with an excessively large public sector. Sweden has the highest proportion of old people in the world, the highest proportion of cohabiting couples, the highest proportion of children born outside wedlock, and the highest proportion of refugees in relation to population. This book deals with the development of the Swedish welfare system, its present stage and problems, analyses the causes, including economic and demographic effects, and shows solutions to the problems and what other countries can learn from the Swedish experience of the social welfare system.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. The Demographic Transition Revised.- 3. Combining Market Work and Family.- 4. Internal Migration.- 5. Immigration and Economic Change.- 6. The Pension System.- 7. Social Care and the Elderly.- 8. Health care and the Elderly.