Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Lund Papers in Economic History,
Lund University, Department of Economic History

No 250: The politics of profits: Profit squeeze and political-economic change in Sweden, 1975–1985

Erik Bengtsson ()
Additional contact information
Erik Bengtsson: Department of Economic History, Lund University, Postal: Department of Economic History, Lund University, Box 7083, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden

Abstract: In the late 1970s, the Swedish economy faced a profit squeeze which threatened to hamper investments and hence the creation of jobs. This engendered a massive debate in the media and among economists and policymakers. This paper investigates the discussion of “the politics of profits”, the policy measures directed towards manipulating the distribution between capital income and labour income in the Swedish economy from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The paper indicates that the capital-labour distribution varied significantly over time and that this became a major issue of debate, and shows the relevance of “the politics of profits” for analyses of economic policy change in the 1970s and 1980s.

Keywords: economic policy; Sweden; macroeconomics; history of capitalism; mixed economy

JEL-codes: H60; N14; N44; P16

Language: English

25 pages, September 1, 2023

Full text files

cb475205-7055-4604-b994-52ea4cc9c640 PDF-file Full text

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Tobias Karlsson ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0250This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:16:07.