Keeping regional inequality in check in Sweden

Christophe André, Jinwoan Beom, Mathilde Pak and Axel Purwin

No 1689, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Regional inequality is low in Sweden compared to most other OECD countries, but has been rising over the past decades, fuelling discontent in parts of the country, whose inhabitants feel left behind. The younger population is increasingly concentrated in the largest cities, which also enjoy the highest productivity growth. Demographic trends exacerbate the difficulty in providing equal public services across the country. Healthy public finances are allowing the government to increase its support to municipalities and regions to adjust to demographic developments and local operating conditions. Beyond this effort, keeping regional inequality in check will require upgrading the sub-national government fiscal framework, enhancing public service efficiency, especially through digitalisation, and promoting regional convergence further, especially by strengthening the role of universities in regional knowledge and innovation networks.

Keywords: Regional economic activity; Regional government analysis; Regional inequality; Regional Studies; State and local budget and expenditures; State and local taxation; subsidies; and revenue; Sweden (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H71 H72 P48 R11 R50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-11-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1689-en

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