Delayed and differential effects of the economic crisis in Sweden in the 1990s on health-related exclusion from the labour market: A health equity assessment

B. Burström, L. Nylén, B. Barr, S. Clayton, P. Holland and M. Whitehead

Social Science & Medicine, 2012, vol. 75, issue 12, 2431-2436

Abstract: Many OECD countries are currently experiencing economic crisis and introducing counter-measures with unknown effects. To learn from previous experience, we explored whether there were delayed or differential effects of the Swedish recession in the 1990s and the government's response to it for people with limiting longstanding illness or disability (LLSI) from different socioeconomic groups (SEGs), by policy analysis and secondary data analysis of the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions (ULF) from 1978 to 2005. The government policy response involved cutting public expenditure, privatising some services and measures to boost private sector employment. There was a decline in overall employment rates from the early 1990s, particularly among men and women with LLSI and in lower SEGs. Public sector employment declined from 53 to 40 percent among women and from 23 to 14 percent among men. Private sector employment increased modestly for women (from 31 percent to 37 percent), and stayed stable at 59–60 percent among men. Following economic recovery, employment rates continued to decline among men and women with LLSI from manual SEGs, while the employment levels increased among most healthy men and women. There was a concomitant increase in rates of LLSI, sickness absence and rates of disability pension particularly among women in lower SEGs.

Keywords: Health inequalities; Economic crisis; Differential consequences; Sweden (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612006855
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:75:y:2012:i:12:p:2431-2436

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.022

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().