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Hartmann, Sweden

Ł_The Active Labour Market Policy and Economic Planning in Sweden

As pointed out by many researchers in the field (Wickman, 1980; Aielsson et ai., 1983; Berglind ic Rundblad, 1978) there is a tradition in Swedish macro-economic planning to see labour market policy as the core of the planning system. Meidner & Niklasson (1973) showed that a number of secondary goals were linked to employment policies, e.g. individual social welfare, reaching a balance between fuli employment, price stability, allo-cation of resources, balanced income distribution.

The dominant position of the labour market policy within the process of macro-economic planning in Sweden can be eiplained by the unique com-bination of academic reasoning represented by names like Wiksell, Lindahl, Olin in the Stockholm school of economics, open-minded politicians like Wigfors and Myrdal in the Social Democratic Party and the actual need to overcome the depression in the early 1930s. Combined with an early ac-ceptance of Keynes' ideas of an active governmental policy to overcome un-employment and depression, the economic success achieved by State inter-vention during the 1930s and the centrally planned war-economy of the 1940s led to the establishment of a Central Labour Market Administration (AMS) in 1948. The increased importance of AMS as a tool to achieve the political goal of fuli employment is reflected in the increase of resources given to the Labour Market Ad ministration which rosę from 0.9% of the Swedish GNP in 1959 to 3% of the GNP in 1977. (Wickman 1980,99)

Another factor in favour of long-term macro-economic planning in Sweden derives from the importance of the big corporate sector which, according to Wickman (1980) along with the growth of a large public sector, can eiplain the acceptance of concerted guidelines for economic development and State intervention in Sweden. As both, large private corporations and govern-mental ad ministration share the need for stable conditions to secure in-vestments in new production lines or in social reforms, sudden distur-bances induced by developments outside the country have to be counter-acted by planned structural change and adjustments inside the country. A gentlemen agreement concluded between the trade unions and the employ-ers association in 1938 formalized this common interest in planned growth and constituted the ground for a widely accepted policy of long-term planning and restructurization of the Swedish labour market.

Named after the economic eiperts of the trade unions. Meidner and Rehn, a model of labour market policy was adopted from 1950s onwards, that not only accepted structural change in industry, but actively tried to move workers from enterprises with Iow efficiency to morę productive areas of economy. Combined with a "solidarian wage-policy" implying higher annual