In 2001, the Swedish system of student aid for college students was substantially re-formed; the grant-share of the total aid was increased, students were allowed to earn more without a reduction in student aid, and the repayment schedule of the loans was significantly tightened. In this paper, we...

The Nordic countries share many features as far as welfare state and labour market institutions are concerned. However, the upper secondary school systems differ significantly in how the vocational tracks are organized. In Denmark and Norway vocational tracks are dual, i.e. they combine school...

During the last two decades the idea that neopatrimonialism is central to unravelling the facts behind Africa’s poor economic performance has been advanced by what this study will refer to as the “Neopatrimonialism School”. This paper will argue that while providing descriptions of the...

In Sweden, employers pay non-wage costs for their workforce in the form of legislated employment tax and collective fees. For parts of the workforce, the collective fees are progressive with respect to the employee’s age and wage. The objective of this paper is to examine how non-wage costs...

This paper studies whether Swedish fertility swings and variation in public expenditure for children are related events. In the 1930s Swedish birth rates had fallen to levels close to the death rates and in public discourse this was perceived as a major social and national crisis, spurring a...

In Sweden the most part of intergenerational transfers are made through the public sector. While our knowledge about the economic life cycle is far from complete we face new challenges with an ageing population. This paper discusses the demographic trends and relationship with the economic life...

This paper has two purposes: the first is to give an introduction to and an analysis of the most important concepts for describing social disadvantage in contemporary Sweden – poverty, social exclusion and the concept “utanförskap”. The latter is difficult to give a proper English...

Social assistance and minimum income benefits are important indicators for assessing the very basic objective of social policy, namely to mitigate financial hardship and alleviate poverty. The Nordic countries have succeeded well from a comparative point of view in terms of poverty alleviation....

Due to various structural pressures predictions of retrenchment and conformity of social policies have been legion, both in terms of expenditure and institutional set-up. Recent research has focused on changes in cash benefits. Comparative analyses of changes in services, the other pillar of...

This study aims at describing shifts in horizontal sex segregation in the Swedish labour market between 1990 and 2003. The study adds to previous studies by exploring changes in three dimensions of horizontal sex segregation, i.e. in workplace, organizational and occupational sex segregation,...