This Selected Issues paper examines the labor market and migration in Sweden. Sweden enjoys a broadly well-functioning labor market. The labor force has been expanding at a healthy pace, in part reflecting rising participation including by females. This paper discusses the compositional changes in the labor force, employment, and unemployment over the past decade. A brief overview of migration flows, their composition, and their demographic benefits is provided. An assessment of the potential implications of the projected increase in migration for unemployment is done. The features of Sweden’s labor market that contribute to the higher unemployment rates of the lower skilled and foreign-born are also outlined.

Sweden is experiencing double-digit housing price gains alongside rising household debt. A common interpretation is that mortgage lending boosted by expansionary monetary policy is driving up house prices. But theory suggests the value of housing collateral is also important for household’s capacity to borrow. This paper examines the interactions between housing prices and household debt using a three-equation model, finding that household borrowing impacts housing prices in the short-run, but the price of housing is the main driver of the secular trend in household debt over the long-run. Both housing prices and household debt are estimated to be moderately above their long-run equilibrium levels, but the adjustment toward equilibrium is not found to be rapid. Whereas low interest rates have contributed to the recent surge in housing prices, growth in incomes and financial assets play a larger role. Policy experiments suggest that a gradual phasing out of mortgage interest deductibility is likely to have a manageable effect on housing prices and household debt.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.

Socio-political views on housing have been brought to the fore in recent years by global economic crises, a notable rise of international migration and intensified trans-regional movement phenomena. Adopting this viewpoint, From Conflict to Inclusion in Housing maps the current terrain of political thinking, ethical conversations and community activism that complements the current discourse on new opportunities to access housing. Its carefully selected case studies cover many geographical contexts, including the UK, the US, Brazil, Australia, Asia and Europe. Importantly, the volume presents the views of stakeholders that are typically left unaccounted for in the process of housing development, and presents them with an interdisciplinary audience of sociologists, planners and architects in mind. Each chapter offers new interpretations of real-world problems, local community initiatives and successful housing projects, and together construct a critique on recent governmental and planning policies globally. Through these studies, the reader will encounter a narrative that encompasses issues of equality for housing, the biopolitics of dwelling and its associated activism, planning initiatives for social sustainability, and the cohabitation of the urban terrain.