Regional Inequalities in Sweden 1985–2014

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to investigate regional inequality and centralization tendencies in Sweden. For this, we use official data from Statistics Sweden on house prices and employment. The data is on the municipality level and covers the period 1985–2014. The research question then becomes, in relation to employment and house prices, which municipalities have gained and which have lost during this period? The time period has been divided into three subperiods that reflect different phases in the process of economic structural change. Two major economic crises are used to signal the end and the start of new structural phases in the Swedish economy. The study uses two dimensions of local economy: employment rates and house prices in municipalities in relation to the national mean. The results indicate increasing divergence between Swedish municipalities over the period. However, the magnitude of the divergence differs within the studied period. Particularly, when it comes to house prices, the third subperiod (2009–2014) shows increasing divergence between Stockholm and Gothenburg in relation to Malmö and the rest of country. Further, when we study the two dimensions simultaneously in accordance with our model, the number of municipalities with above-national-mean employment rates and house prices decreases over time. In the last period, 2009–2014, municipalities with means above the national mean are concentrated in urban agglomerations mainly located close to Sweden’s three largest cities.

Citation

Håkansson, P.G. and Andersson, M. (2019), "Regional Inequalities in Sweden 1985–2014", Håkansson, P.G. and Bohman, H. (Ed.) Investigating Spatial Inequalities, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 17-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-941-120191002