出版社：European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
摘要：The three Nordic EU countries, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, are small open
economies with well developed welfare systems and inclusive labour markets. They
have performed relatively well in the last decade. In Finland and Sweden, catchingup
effects after the crises in the early 1990s and ICT have played a role. Reforms
have been intensively pursued, facilitated by a consensual governance setting,
including in the 1990s a widely-shared sentiment of crisis. The three countries have
gone far in deregulating markets and enhancing competition. In the labour markets,
overall light employment protection legislation combines with generous
unemployment benefits. Reforms have focused on improving the efficiency of costly
active labour market policies, including tightening availability criteria. The universal
insurance, available as part of the welfare state, may have helped to gain
acceptance of reform. Challenges include pressures on highly taxed labour in a
context of increased global mobility of factors of production and the need to improve
the efficiency of the large public sectors including in the provision of public services.
