The politics of profits: Profit squeeze and political-economic change in Sweden, 1975–1985

Erik Bengtsson

No 250, Lund Papers in Economic History from Lund University, Department of Economic History

Abstract: In the late 1970s, the Swedish economy faced a profit squeeze which threatened to hamper investments and hence the creation of jobs. This engendered a massive debate in the media and among economists and policymakers. This paper investigates the discussion of “the politics of profits”, the policy measures directed towards manipulating the distribution between capital income and labour income in the Swedish economy from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The paper indicates that the capital-labour distribution varied significantly over time and that this became a major issue of debate, and shows the relevance of “the politics of profits” for analyses of economic policy change in the 1970s and 1980s.

Keywords: economic policy; Sweden; macroeconomics; history of capitalism; mixed economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H60 N14 N44 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2023-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-pke and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0250

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