Social Democracy and the Decline of Strikes
(2021) In Lund papers in Economic history- Abstract
- This paper tests if a strong labor movement leads to fewer industrial conflicts. The focus is on Sweden between the first general election in 1919 and the famous Saltsjöbaden Agreement in 1938, a formative period when the country transitioned from fierce labor conflicts to a state of industrial peace. Using panel data techniques to analyze more than 2,000 strikes in 103 Swedish towns, we find that a shift of municipal political majority towards the Social Democrats led to a significant decline in local strike activity, but only in towns where union presence was strong. The strike-reducing mechanism is related to corporatist explanations rather than increased social spending in municipal budgets.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/231aaf09-3028-4ed9-952c-889f8fa5e404
- author
- Molinder, Jakob LU ; Karlsson, Tobias LU and Enflo, Kerstin LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Power Resource Theory, industrial conflicts, strikes, labor markets, local politics, N34, N44, H53, J51
- in
- Lund papers in Economic history
- issue
- 2021:222
- pages
- 38 pages
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 231aaf09-3028-4ed9-952c-889f8fa5e404
- date added to LUP
- 2021-05-21 10:45:54
- date last changed
- 2021-10-01 02:19:49
@misc{231aaf09-3028-4ed9-952c-889f8fa5e404, abstract = {{This paper tests if a strong labor movement leads to fewer industrial conflicts. The focus is on Sweden between the first general election in 1919 and the famous Saltsjöbaden Agreement in 1938, a formative period when the country transitioned from fierce labor conflicts to a state of industrial peace. Using panel data techniques to analyze more than 2,000 strikes in 103 Swedish towns, we find that a shift of municipal political majority towards the Social Democrats led to a significant decline in local strike activity, but only in towns where union presence was strong. The strike-reducing mechanism is related to corporatist explanations rather than increased social spending in municipal budgets.}}, author = {{Molinder, Jakob and Karlsson, Tobias and Enflo, Kerstin}}, keywords = {{Power Resource Theory; industrial conflicts; strikes; labor markets; local politics; N34; N44; H53; J51}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{2021:222}}, series = {{Lund papers in Economic history}}, title = {{Social Democracy and the Decline of Strikes}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/98046018/LUPEH_222.pdf}}, year = {{2021}}, }