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The Nordic Welfare Model in the Twenty-First Century: The Bumble-Bee Still Flies!

Part of: SPS Beveridge Report Archive Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2015

Rune Halvorsen ,
Bjørn Hvinden  and
Mi Ah Schoyen
Rune Halvorsen
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work and Social Policy, Oslo and Akershus University College E-mail: rune.halvorsen@hioa.no
Bjørn Hvinden
Affiliation:
NOVA Norwegian Social Research, Oslo and Akershus University College E-mail: bjorn.hvinden@nova.hioa.no
Mi Ah Schoyen
Affiliation:
NOVA Norwegian Social Research, Oslo and Akershus University College E-mail: miah.schoyen@nova.hioa.no
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Abstract

The Nordic countries are admired for high employment, low levels of poverty and inequality, encompassing welfare states, and peaceful industrial relations. Yet the model is criticised for hampering the employment opportunities of vulnerable groups. The literature identifies several potential mechanisms of exclusion. Compressed wage structures may make employers reluctant to hire certain workers for fear that their productivity is too low to justify the cost. Second, generous benefits lower individuals’ incentive to work. Third, businesses increasingly specialise in high-skill activities. We explore these arguments comparatively by considering the employment chances of two vulnerable groups: disabled persons and migrants. The Nordic countries are compared with other rich democracies that take different approaches to social protection and wage dispersion. The Nordic countries do not perform systematically worse than other ‘varieties of capitalism’. In line with recent research, we also find that there is considerable intra-Nordic variation, which calls for further study.

Keywords

EmploymentglobalisationNordic modelvulnerable groupswage distribution
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 57 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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