Institutions and policies in the economic and social fields have been rather experimental in Sweden. The experiences of some of these experiments are also relevant, positively or negatively, for other developed countries. Sweden may therefore be regarded not only as a small country on the periphery of Europe, but also as a large ("full-scale") economic and social laboratory. This book discusses the experience of economic and social policies in Sweden after World War II, emphasizing the period after about 1970.
In The Swedish Experiment Assar Lindbeck characterizes the economic and social system in Sweden in terms of a number of institution al features by which Sweden has differed from most other developed countries. They refer mainly to the division of responsibilities between the private and the government sector, in particular with respect to economic security, employment, income distribution, consumption and investment. The book concludes by asking whether the Swedish experiment is gradually unwinding and, if so, why.
The Swedish Experiment is written in a non-technical fashion and should be of great interest not only to professional economists, but also to students of economics and other social sciences as well as to general readers.
