The purpose of this study is to present a comparative economic systems evaluation of the Swedish housing model. The evaluation examines success in achieving equity as well as efficiency goals and incorporates key comparisons with the market-oriented US housing model. From the late 1940s up to the major housing reforms of the early 1990s, a form of strong economic planning characterised the Swedish housing sector. By the early 1970s, the housing standard for all income-groups had been raised markedly and urban slums eliminated. Yet, Sweden's success came at huge resource cost while at the same time important equity goals were compromised. For example, Swedish building costs are among the highest in the world while in Sweden's major cities socioeconomic segregation is more pronounced than ever before in the post-war period.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anas, A. and Cho, J. (1988) A dynamic policy oriented model of the regulated housing market: the Swedish prototype, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 18, pp. 201-231.
2.
Anas, A., Jirlow, U., Harsman, B. and Snickars F. (1985) The Swedish housing market: structure and policy issues, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 2, pp. 169-187.
3.
Anas, A., Jirlow, U., Harsman, B. and Snickars, F. (1991) The Swedish housing market: development and institutional setting, in: B. Harsman and J. Quigley (Eds) Housing Markets and Housing Institutions: An International Comparison, pp. 31-62. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
4.
Andersson, R. (1998) Ethnic divisions of mobility and housing in post-Palme Sweden, UrbanStudies, 35, pp. 397-428.
5.
Andersson, R. (1999) 'Divided cities' as a policy-based notion in Sweden , Housing Studies, 14, pp. 601-624.
6.
Angel, S. (2000) Housing Policy Matters: A Global Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
7.
Arnott, R. (1995) Time for revisionism on rent control?, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9, pp.99-120.
8.
Barlow, J. (1993) Controlling the land market: lessons from Europe, UrbanStudies, 30(7), pp.1127-1147.
9.
Barlow, J. and Duncan, S. (1994) Success and Failure in Housing Provision: European Systems Compared. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd.
10.
Bengtsson, B. (1994) Swedish rental policy: a complex superstructure with cracking foundations, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 11, pp. 182-189.
11.
Bennedsen, M. (2000) Political ownership, Journal of Public Economics, 76, pp. 559-581.
12.
Berger, T. and Turner, B. (1991) Windfall gains on the Swedish housing market: the effects of queueing for a cooperative dwelling, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association Journal, 19, pp. 161-183.
13.
Bohm, P. (1973) Social Efficiency: A Concise Introduction to Welfare Economics. London: Macmillan.
14.
Borgegard, L.E., Andersson, E. and Hjort, S. (1998) The divided city? socio-economic changes in Stockholm metropolitan area, 1970-94, in: S. Musterd and W. Ostendorf (Eds) Urban Segregation and the Welfare State: Inequality and Exclusion in Western Cities, pp. 206-222. London: Routledge .
15.
Davis O., Eastman, C. and Hua, C. (1974) The shrinkage in the stock of low-quality housing in the central city, Urban Studies, 11, pp. 13-26.
16.
Dickens, P., Duncan, S., Goodwin, M. and Gray, F. (1985) Housing, States and Localities. London: Methuen.
17.
Dipasquale, D. and Wheaton, W. (1996) Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
18.
Englund, P., Quigley, J. and Redfearn, C. (1998) Improved price indexes for real estate: measuring the course of Swedish housing prices, Journal of Urban Economics , 2, pp.171-196.
19.
Gottschalk, P. and Smeeding, T. (2000) Empirical evidence on income inequality in industrialized countries, in: A. B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon (Eds) Handbook of Income Distribution , Vol. 1, pp. 261-307. New York: Elsevier.
20.
Hall, P. (1998) The social democratic utopia: Stockholm, 1945-1980 , in: P. Hall (Ed.) Cities in Civilization, pp. 842-887. New York: Pantheon Books.
21.
Hallett, G. (1993) The New Housing Shortage: Housing Affordability in Europe and the USA. London: Routledge.
22.
Harsman, B. and Quigley, J. (Eds) (1991) Housing Markets and Housing Institutions: An International Comparison. Boston, MA: Kluwer Publishers.
23.
Headey, B. (1978) Housing Policy in the Developed Economy. London: Croom Helm.
24.
Heclo, H. and Madsen, H. (1987) Policy and Politics in Sweden: Principled Pragmatism . Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
25.
Hedman, E. (Ed.) (1993) Housing in Sweden in an International Perspective. Kalmar: Boverket.
26.
Jensfelt, C. (1993) Improvement of Housing Estates: Final Report on the FORMA Project. Stockholm: The Swedish Council for Building Research.
27.
Jensfelt, C. (1995) Swedish contribution, in: R. Turkington, R. Van Kempen and F. Wassenburg (Eds) The Future of High-Rise Housing Estates: A European Perspective. London: Chapman and Hall.
28.
Johansson, A. (1938) Social housing policy in Sweden, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, pp. 160-170.
29.
Johansson, A. (1947) An approach to modern housing, The Proceedings of the International Management Congress, pp. 229-241.
30.
Johansson, M. (1993) The polarization of a metropolis in a welfare state: the example of Stockholm, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 10, pp. 91-103.
31.
Joint Center For Housing Studies, Harvard University (1998) The State of the Nation's Housing. Cambridge, MA.
32.
Karyd, A. and Sodersten, B. (1990) The Swedish housing market from a distribution perspective: market and policy interactions, in: I. Persson (Ed.) Generating Equality in the Welfare State , pp. 157-178. Olso: Norwegian University Press.
33.
Kemeny, J. (1993) The significance of Swedish rental policy: cost renting: command economy versus the social market in comparative perspective , Housing Studies, 8, pp. 3-15.
34.
Kornai, J. (1980) The Economics of Shortage, Vol. B. Amsterdam: North Holland.
35.
Kornai, J. (1986) The soft budget constraint, Kyklos , 39, pp. 3-30.
36.
Lindbeck, A. (1967) Rent control as an instrument of housing policy , in: A. Nevitt (Ed.) The Economic Problems of Housing, pp. 53-72. London: Macmillan.
37.
Lindbeck, A., Molander, P., Persson, T. ET AL. (1994) Turning Sweden Around. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
38.
Lingren, O. and Aspman, L. (1984) Repairs, reconstruction, and extensions in the Swedish economy, Skandinaviska Enskilda BankenQuarterly Review , 1, pp. 15-26.
39.
Lundqvist, L., Elander, I. and Danermark, B. (1990) Housing policy in Sweden: still a success story? , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 14, pp. 445-467.
40.
Malpezzi, S. (1998) Private rental housing markets in the United States, The Netherlands Journal of Housing and theBuilt Environment , 13, pp. 353-386.
41.
Malpezzi, S. and Green, R. (1996) What has happened to the bottom of the US housing market?, UrbanStudies, 33, pp. 1807-1820.
42.
Murdie R. and Borgegard, L. (1998) Immigration, spatial segregation and housing segmentation of immigrants in metropolitan Stockholm, 1960-88, Urban Studies , 35, pp. 1869-1888.
43.
Nesslein, T. (1982) The Swedish housing model: an assessment, UrbanStudies, 19, pp. 235-246.
44.
Nesslein, T. (1983) Alternative decision-making models for housing , Kyklos, 36, pp. 604-633.
45.
Nesslein, T. (1988) Housing: the market versus the welfare state model revisited, UrbanStudies, 25, pp. 94-108.
46.
Nystrom, L. (1993) Design control in planning: the Swedish case, Built Environment, 20, pp. 113-126.
47.
O'Higgins, M., Schmaus, G. and Stephenson, G. (1989) Income distribution and redistribution: a microdata analysis for seven countries, Review of Income and Wealth , 35, pp. 107-131.
48.
Popenoe, D. (1974) Urban residential differentiation, in: M. Effrat (Ed.) The Community: Approaches and Applications, pp. 35-56. New York: The Free Press.
49.
Popenoe, D. (1977) The Suburban Environment: Sweden and the United States. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
50.
Quigley, J. (1999) Why should the government play a role in housing ?, Housing, Theory, and Society, 16(4), pp. 201-203.
51.
Rohe, W., McCarthy, G. and Zandt S. Van (2000) The social benefits and costs of home-ownership: a critical assessment of the research. Working Paper #00-01, Research Institute for Housing America , Washington DC.
52.
Rydenfelt, S. (1981) The rise, fall, and revival of Swedish rent control , in: W. E. Block and E. Olsen (Eds) Rent Control: Myths and Realities , pp. 201-229. Vancouver, BC: The Fraser Institute.
53.
Sahlin, I. (1996) From deficient planning to 'incapable tenants': changing discourses on housing problems in Sweden, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 13, pp. 167-181.
54.
Shleifer, A. (1998) State versus private ownership, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(4), pp. 133-150.
55.
Silk, L. (1948) Sweden Plans for Better Housing. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
56.
Simmons, P. (Ed.) (1997) Housing Statistics of the United States. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press.
57.
Smeeding, T. (1992) Why the U.S. antipoverty system doesn't work very well, Challenge, January/February, pp. 30-35.
58.
Smeeding, T., O'Higgins, M. and Rainwater, L. (1990) Poverty, Inequality, and Income Distribution in Comparative Perspective: The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
59.
Soderstrom, L. (1988) General subsidies in the Swedish housing market: a questionable element of the fair distribution policy, Skandinaviska Enskilda BankenQuarterly Review, 3, pp. 52-59.
60.
Stahl, I. (1984) Current problems on the housing market and in home financing in Sweden, Skandinaviska Enskilda BankenQuarterly Review, 1, pp. 2-14.
61.
Stiglitz, J. (1994) Whither Socialism?Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
62.
Svensson, K.A.S. (1998) Neither market nor command economy: Swedish negotiative rent setting in practice, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 15, pp. 79-94.
63.
Tomann, H. (1990) The housing market, housing finance and housing policy in West Germany: prospects for the 1990s, UrbanStudies , 27(6), pp. 919-930.
64.
Torgersen, U. (1987) Housing: the wobbly pillar under the welfare state , in: B. Turner, J. Kemeny and L. Lundqvist (Eds) Between State and Market: Housing in the Post-Industrial Era, pp. 116-126. Stockholm : Almqvist and Wiksell International.
65.
Turner, B. (1988) Economic and political aspects of negotiated rents in the Swedish housing market, Journal of Real Estate Finance andEconomics, 1, pp. 257-276.
66.
Turner, B. (1996) Sweden, in: P. Balchin (Ed.) Housing Policy in Europe, pp. 99-112. London : Routledge.
67.
Turner, B. (1997) Municipal housing companies in Sweden: on or off the market?, Housing Studies, 12, pp. 477-488.
68.
Turner, B. (1998) The future of the private rental sector in Sweden, Netherlands Journal of Housing and theBuilt Environment, 13, pp.279-299.
69.
Turner, B. (1999) Social housing finance in Sweden, UrbanStudies, 36, pp. 683-697.
70.
Vining, A. and Boardman, A. (1992) Ownership versus competition: efficiency in public enterprise, Public Choice, 73, pp. 205-239.
