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Kerstin Enflo. Photo.

Kerstin Enflo

Professor

Kerstin Enflo. Photo.

Strikes and local politics

Author

  • Jakob Molinder
  • Kerstin Enflo
  • Tobias Karlsson

Summary, in English

Conflicts in the labour market are detrimental to economic growth and welfare. Sweden was among the countries with the highest incidents of industrial disputes in the 1920s, but experienced declining levels from the 1930s onward. Using Swedish data from 1919 to 1938, this column shows that towns with both powerful unions and strong Social Democratic presence experienced labour market peace. The results point toward the importance of labour market peace for strategic political reasons, rather than to politicians offering tangible concessions via municipal governmental power.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History
  • Centre for Economic Demography

Publishing year

2018-09-20

Language

English

Document type

Web publication

Publisher

voxeu.org

Topic

  • Economic History
  • Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)

Keywords

  • strikes
  • power resource theory
  • Sweden
  • labor unions
  • industrial conflicts

Status

Published

Project

  • From Sundsvall to Saltsjöbaden: A regional perspective on strikes at the Swedish labor market