Economic Growth and the Swedish Model

Magnus Henrekson (), Lars Jonung () and Joakim Stymne

No 19, Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

Abstract: We examine the growth performance of Sweden in the post-World War II period, focusing on explaining the relative decline of economic growth in Sweden since the early 1970s. The hypothesis that the relative decline is a consequence of productivity catch-up is rejected. A number of potential "ultimate" causes behind the slowdown are explored. An increasingly inefficient process of capital formation; a shrinking share of the economy being exposed to international competition; long-run negative effects of activist stabilisation policies; rapid growth of the public sector; deteriorating incentives for human capital formation; and weak incentives for implementing the results of R&D efforts are all part of the story. The evidence suggests that the incentive structure created by "the Swedish model" made Sweden less successful in adapting to the shocks of the 1970s and 1980s than other OECD countries.

Keywords: Catching up; convergence; economic growth; human capital; productivity; welfare state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O1 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994-05

Published in Economic Growth in Europe Since 1945, Crafts, N., Toniolo, G. (eds.), 1996, chapter s, Cambridge University Press.

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Growth and the Swedish Model (1994)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:hastef:0019

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics
Address: The Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Helena Lundin ().