Unions, insurance and changing welfare states: The emergence of obligatory complementary income insurance in Sweden

Jesper Hamark () and John Lapidus ()
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Jesper Hamark: Department of Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 720, SE 40530 Göteborg, Sweden
John Lapidus: Department of Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Göteborg University, Box 720, SE 40530 Göteborg, Sweden

No 29, Göteborg Papers in Economic History from University of Gothenburg, Unit for Economic History

Abstract: How do unions who support universal welfare such as public employment insurance reason when they introduce private solutions such as obligatory complementary income insurance (OCII)? Unions are important actors in shaping the welfare model. Their actions and arguments tell a lot about how and why welfare state changes take place. In this paper, we seek answers to how the unions have acted and argued on OCII, how these actions and arguments have changed over time and whether there are differences across unions within the same confederation and across different confederations. The material includes congressional minutes and other internal documents for the period 2000–2020. Further, a number of newspapers and union magazines are studied. What we find and systematise is a myriad of arguments for and against OCII, some of them referring to the eroded public unemployment insurance and others pointing towards sharp competition between unions to keep or to recruit new members.

Keywords: Unions; public unemployment insurance; obligatory complementary income insurance; welfare models; Swedish welfare model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 J51 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2022-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias, nep-lab and nep-ltv
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