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The Changing Meaning of the Wage Bargaining Round in Sweden since the 1960s: A Contextual Approach to Shifts in Industrial Relations

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  • Bengtsson, Erik

    (Department of Economic History, Lund University)

Abstract

Sweden is renowned for its centralized wage bargaining system, which has been studied for decades from the point of view of inflation, wage differentials and unemployment. A coordinated system in place since 1997 has been compared to the centralized system of the postwar era, while other scholars have pointed to differences in how the institutions work in practice. This paper studies media coverage of wage bargaining rounds in the 1950s-1960s and in the 2000s-2010s to investigate the social understanding of what the wage bargaining institutions are supposed to do. The results indicate that the operation of the wage bargaining system in the 2000s and that in the post-war era are in fact understood very differently: while widely shared aims for wage bargaining rounds in the 1950s and 1960s were to a high degree formulated by the trade unions, trade union influence over the agenda was significantly weaker in the 2000s and 2010s, when external experts, not the least from the financial sector, were to a much higher degree used to define and formulate what good bargaining outcomes would be.

Suggested Citation

  • Bengtsson, Erik, 2023. "The Changing Meaning of the Wage Bargaining Round in Sweden since the 1960s: A Contextual Approach to Shifts in Industrial Relations," Lund Papers in Economic History 245, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0245
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thelen,Kathleen, 2014. "Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107679566, October.
    2. Erik Bengtsson, 2015. "Wage restraint in Scandinavia: during the postwar period or the neoliberal age?," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 19(4), pages 359-381.
    3. Martin B. Carstensen & Christian Lyhne Ibsen & Vivien A. Schmidt, 2022. "Ideas and power in employment relations studies," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 3-21, January.
    4. Moene, K.O. & Wallerstein, M., 1995. "How Social Democracy Worked: Labour Market Institutions," Memorandum 1995_010, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    5. Kathleen Thelen, 2009. "Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 471-498, September.
    6. Karl Ove Moene & Michael Wallerstein, 1995. "How Social Democracy Worked: Labor-Market Institutions," Politics & Society, , vol. 23(2), pages 185-211, June.
    7. Thelen,Kathleen, 2014. "Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107053168, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    trade unions; collective bargaining; Sweden; Social Democracy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

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