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The Rehn-Meidner Model in Sweden: Its Rise, Challenges and Survival

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Abstract

A Swedish economic policy was developed by two trade union economists shortly after the Second World War. The Rehn-Meidner model recommends the use of selective employment policy measures, a tight macroeconomic policy and a wage policy of solidarity to combine full employment and equity with price stability and economic growth. Although never consistently applied in Sweden, it is possible to distinguish a golden age for the Rehn-Meidner model from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. In the 1970s and 1980s, Swedish governments abandoned the restrictive macroeconomic means of the Rehn-Meidner programme and decentralised wage bargaining obstructed the wage policy of solidarity. In the 1990s and 2000s a new economic-policy regime could not meet the strong requirement of full employment in the Rehn-Meidner model but it satisfied the model’s priority of selective employment policy within the framework of a restrictive macroeconomic policy.

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  • Erixon, Lennart, 2008. "The Rehn-Meidner Model in Sweden: Its Rise, Challenges and Survival," Research Papers in Economics 2008:2, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2008_0002
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    1. Riesgo e Incertidumbre: Buscando Robustez en la Política Fiscal (III)
      by Jesús Fernández-Villaverde in Nada Es Gratis on 2010-03-09 23:13:47

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    Cited by:

    1. Jon D. Wisman & Michael Cauvel, 2021. "Why Has Labor Not Demanded Guaranteed Employment?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 677-696, July.
    2. Torben M. Andersen, 2011. "Social policies and activation in the Scandinavian welfare model: the case of Denmark," Economics Working Papers 2011-10, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    3. Erixon, Lennart, 2018. "The Stockholm School in a New Age – Erik Lundberg and the Swedish Model," Research Papers in Economics 2018:4, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    4. Robert Pollin, 2013. "Theses on Weisskopf," Chapters, in: Jeannette Wicks-Lim & Robert Pollin (ed.), Capitalism on Trial, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Markus Leibrecht & Silvia Rocha-Akis, 2014. "Sozialpartnerschaft und makroökonomische Performance," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 87(8), pages 555-567, August.
    6. Erixon, Lennart, 2016. "Building a path of equality to economic progress and macroeconomic stability - the economic theory of the Swedish model," Research Papers in Economics 2016:3, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    7. Francesco Vona & Luca Zamparelli, 2010. "Centralized Wage Setting and Labor Market Policies: the Nordic Model Case," Working Papers 5/10, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    8. Jakob Molinder, 2022. "How effective are mobility subsidies in targeting the unemployed? Lessons from the Swedish Model, 1965–1975," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(4), pages 1724-1746, November.
    9. Jan O. Jonsson & Carina Mood & Erik Bihagen, 2016. "Poverty trends during two recessions and two recoveries: lessons from Sweden 1991–2013," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Torben Andersen, 2010. "Why do Scandinavians Work?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3068, CESifo.
    11. Buendía, Luis & Barredo, Juan & Balay, Juan, 2022. "Foreign sector and welfare state in Sweden: From complementarity to tensions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 310-319.
    12. Francesco Vona & Luca Zamparelli, 2014. "Centralized Wage Setting and Active Labor Market Policies in Frictional Labor Markets: The Nordic Case," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 349-364, June.
    13. Sebastiano Fadda, 2016. "Labour Coefficients Reduction and Working Time Reduction," Argomenti, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics, vol. 4(4), pages 1-21, May-Augus.
    14. Qiang Zhou, 2017. "Endogenizing Labor Mobility: A Partisan Politics Explanation," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 688-715, July.
    15. Erixon, Lennart, 2011. "Under the influence of traumatic events, new ideas, economic experts and the ICT revolution - the economic policy and macroeconomic performance of Sweden in the 1990s and 2000s," Research Papers in Economics 2011:25, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Swedish model; Rehn-Meidner model; third way; labour market policy; wage policy; productivity growth; fiscal policy; unemployment; inflation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • O23 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Development

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