This paper analyses Sweden’s policies for addressing a range of key environmental challenges. Although Sweden has a deliberately comprehensive approach to establishing its environmental objectives and policies, some issues have received particular attention. These include acidification and...

The paper examines the effects of demographic changes on government budgets and national savings. Most OECD countries will experience a rapid ageing of the population in the future and this development will put public pensions, health care systems and government budgets in general under...

Immigration could offer one way for Denmark to expand its labour supply, thereby lowering the dependency ratio, at least for some time, and easing the task of ensuring fiscal sustainability. However, these beneficial effects are obtained only if immigrants are in work. Yet a significant...

This paper reviews fiscal policy, government indebtedness and its implications for economic performance in OECD countries. Government debt, expenditure and revenue relative to GDP have all risen significantly over the past 15 years and in several countries these trends are unsustainable. The...

Vigorous product market competition plays a central role in bolstering productivity growth. Sweden has strengthened competition legislation and deregulated a number of sectors, including electricity, telecommunications and parts of transport, over the past 10 to 15 years. This paper examines the...

This paper presents simulations of the impact of age-related public expenditures on overall government budget positions and on national savings for 20 countries. Using demographic projections prepared by the World Bank, models have been constructed for the evolution of public pension...