Enflo, Kerstin and Roses, Joan Ramon 
ORCID: 0000-0003-0661-3134
(2015)
Coping with regional inequality in Sweden: structural change, migrations, and policy, 1860-2000.
Economic History Review, 68 (1).
191 - 217.
ISSN 0013-0117
Abstract
In many countries, regional income inequality has followed an inverted U-shaped curve, growing during industrialization and market integration and declining thereafter. By contrast, Sweden's regional inequality dropped from 1860 to 1980 and did not exhibit this U-shaped pattern. Accordingly, today's regional income inequality in Sweden is lower than in other European countries. We note that the prime mover behind the long-run reduction in regional income differentials was structural change, whereas neoclassical and technological forces played a relatively less important role. However, this process of regional income convergence can be divided into three major periods. During the first period (1860–1940), the unrestricted action of market forces, particularly the expansion of markets and high rates of internal and international migration, led to the compression of regional income differentials. During the next period (1940–80), regional convergence was even more intense. In this period, institutional arrangements favoured the reduction of productivity differentials across industries and successive governments aided the reallocation of the workforce from declining to thriving regions and economic sectors. During the last period (1980–2000), when regional incomes diverged, internal migration and structural change slowed. Furthermore, the development of knowledge-intensive service industries favoured economic growth in the main metropolitan areas.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-02... |
| Additional Information: | © 2014 Economic History Society |
| Divisions: | Economic History |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Jul 2014 11:39 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Nov 2024 06:18 |
| Projects: | ECO2009-13331-C02-01, 225342, 2008-2023, W2008-0357:1 |
| Funders: | Lund University School of Economics and Management, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, HI-POD Project, Seventh Research Framework Programme, Swedish Research Council, Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/57317 |
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