Swedish Industrial Policy: From General Policies to Crisis Management, 1950–1980

Abstract

By industrial policy we may denote every type of policy intended to influence the pace and direction of structural change in the economy. Using this definition, we refer to not only the foreseeable and unforeseeable consequences of industrial policy measures, but also the unintended consequences of other policy measures, such as those in macroeconomic policy. As such, industrial policy is an elusive concept. In their introduction to European Industrial Policy, James Foreman-Peck and Giovanni Federico¹ define three levels of industrial policy: a) ‘creating the landscape’, by which is meant the creation of clearly defined property rights; b) policies aiming at ‘modifying the ecological environment’, meaning growth policies which similarly affect all firms and sectors; and c) ‘changing the fauna’, that is policies aiming to further specific sectors or firms, which is often referred to as a ‘picking the winner policy’. Most policies followed in Sweden before the late 1960s fall into the second category. This does not, however, rule out that some firms or sectors benefitted from certain policies more so than did others.