Privatizing Welfare Services

Henrik Jordahl is Professor of Economics at Örebro University with a specialization in public economics. He also directs a research program on the service sector at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics. His research is focused on the intersection between private business and the public sector with topics such as tax-financed services, privatization, management, school quality, and voting behaviour. He earned his PhD in economics from Uppsala University and has been an external director of research at the Centre for Business and Policy Studies (SNS) in Stockholm. He is affiliated with Uppsala Centre for Fiscal Studies at Uppsala University and with the international research networks CESifo and IZA.Mårten Blix is a research scholar at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics. He has a PhD in Economics from Stockholm University and an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics. He has held several senior management positions, including director for the division of budget totals in the Swedish Ministry of Finance, chief economist at the Ministry of Industry, and advisor at the Swedish Central Bank; he has also worked at the European Central Bank and been secretary to the Swedish Prime Minister in the Commission on the Future Challenges of Sweden. He is frequently invited to give seminars and has been interviewed by the New York Times, The Economist, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung among others. His work is focused on understanding the effects of digitalization and the effects of technology on welfare services. His recent work includes the book Digitalization, Immigration and the Welfare State.

This text is the first in-depth study of this trend in Sweden, one of the most extensive, highly developed welfare states and a system in which direct state provision of services dominated. It also breaks new ground by offering a very careful, balanced assessment of the results of privatization and how outcomes differ in the provision of different types of services, such as care for disabled people and preschool children.

• Author's Preface 1: An Introduction to Privatizing Swedish Welfare Services 2: Quasi-markets 3: Controlling Public Spending 4: Anatomy of Welfare Reforms 5: Profit, Choice and Competition 6: Management 7: Public Opinion 8: Summary and Conclusions References