Sweden's Welfare State: Can the Bumblebee Keep Flying?

By Subhash Madhav Thakur, Valerie Cerra, Balázs Horváth, Michael Keen

May 1, 2003

Preview Citation

Format: Chicago

Subhash Madhav Thakur, Valerie Cerra, Balázs Horváth, and Michael Keen. Sweden's Welfare State: Can the Bumblebee Keep Flying?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2003) accessed December 21, 2024

Summary

Sweden has long been viewed as epitomizing a particular approach to economic and social policy. To its advocates, the Swedish welfare state builds on a strong social consensus favoring extensive state intervention to ensure a high quality of life for all Swedes. To its critics, the Swedish system is marked by excessive government intervention and attendant inefficiencies. These contrasting views are captured in imagery used by Prime Minister Göran Persson: "Think of a bumblebee. With its overly heavy body and little wings, supposedly it should not be able to fly--but it does." The Swedish welfare state is the bumblebee that has managed to fly. This book draws on many years of IMF surveillance and policy advice to explain how it has done so, to assess the challenges that the Swedish model faces in the new century, to propose a strategy for dealing with those challenges, and to draw lessons for the many other countries that face similar challenges from globalization and demographics.

Subject: Corporate income tax, Corporate taxes, Expenditure, Income, Labor, Labor markets, National accounts, Revenue administration, Taxes

Keywords: Baltics, BOOK, Corporate income tax, Corporate taxes, Earnings distribution, Europe, General government expenditure, Global, Growth performance, ICT sector, Income, Labor markets, Northern Europe, Per capita income, Report Sweden, Tax depreciation allowance, Transfer income, User cost of capital, Wage, Wage dispersion, Western Europe

Publication Details

Pages:

149
Volume:

---
DOI:

---
Issue:

---
Series:

Books
Stock No:

SWSCEA
ISBN:

---
ISSN:

---

Supplemental Resources

Link to Abstract
WEB

FACTSHEETS

RESOURCES

TOPICS

Flagship Publications

Other Publications

IMF reports and publications by country

Regional Offices

All News

See Also

For Journalists

Press Center

RESOURCES

FLAGSHIPS

KEY SERIES

IMF NOTES

Books