Premium
THE WELFARE STATE AND POVERTY IN FINLAND AND SWEDEN FROM THE MID‐1960s TO THE MID‐1980s
Author(s) -
Gustafsson Björn,
Uusitalo Hannu
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1990.tb00303.x
Subject(s) - poverty , economics , welfare , welfare state , poverty rate , development economics , demographic economics , goods and services , economic growth , political science , economy , politics , law , market economy
Using poverty lines representing the fixed basket of goods and services, the development over time of poverty in Finland and Sweden are compared. In both countries, poverty decreased rapidly between the mid‐1960s and the mid‐1970s, after which changes have been less dramatic. During the first part of the 1980s poverty continued to decrease in Finland, but increased in Sweden. Comparisons for age‐groups showed large reductions in poverty rates among the aged in both countries. Poverty has shifted from the permanent old age poverty towards a more temporary poverty in young adulthood. International comparisons show that in the early 1980s both Finland and Sweden had poverty rates below the average of the affluent Western nations. Furthermore, these comparisons suggest that cross‐national variations in poverty rates are partly explained by the size of the welfare state. Also, time series analysis shows that income transfers have taken an increasing number of people out of poverty in both countries.