This report uses institutional data from the Social Policy Indicator Database (SPIN), collected at the Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University. Replacement levels in social insurance and unemployment insurance within the SPIN database are calculated using a model family analysis approach (Nelson et al., 2020). The study examines benefit entitlements, net of taxes, for households in old age, illness, unemployment, work injury, and low income, based on an average industrial worker’s wage. The study covers the years 1960-2020 for the main social insurance programs, with minimum-income protection data available from 1990-2022.
In addition to Sweden, the study includes 17 other long-standing democracies, with a population over one million inhabitants: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Authors
Kenneth Nelson holds the Barnett Professorship in Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) at the University of Oxford. Nelson is also Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.
Sebastian Sirén is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Government at Uppsala University.