Sverige och den västeuropeiska arbetslösheten 1970-1990

This dissertation studies the labor market development of fourteen Western European countries during the years 1970-90, focusing on the relatively low Swedish unemployment. The variation in unemployment over time and between countries has proved difficult to explain with the most influential theoretical models, which are usually categorized as New-keynesian and Post-keynesian respectively. The dissertation shows that the latter can to some extent explain the development over time for each
country, but leaves much unexplained in terms of differences between countries. To explain these differences, a structural analytical framework is constructed. The composition and growth of employment are analyzed for each country. It is shown that there are underlying structural explanations for the development of unemployment. Unemployment increased as a consequence of declining growth (in some cases negative growth) in total employment, which in turn is explained by the structural crisis
giving rise to a gap between the decline of the industrial sector and the service sector's ability to create new employment. This gap was not as pronounced in all countries and through analysis of the structural change, information is obtained on what explains variations in unemployment. It is shown that the relatively good Swedish development in the labor market during this period is partly explained by a relatively milder employment crisis in industry and a higher degree of compensatory employment
growth in the welfare services sector.