About AER

The Swedish Labour Policy Council (AER) was established in 2015 as an independent expert council tasked with analysing the effects of wage setting, active labour market policies and labour law on the labour market.  In addition, the Council is to analyse how the level and structure of wage growth affects employment and, in particular, how wage setting can contribute to reducing unemployment in the long run. The Council fulfills its tasks primarily through the publication of an annual labour market report.

The Council is financed by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise but operates independently. To guarantee independence,  the Council’s budget is decided for three years at a time and the Confederation does not have access to the annual report before publication.

The Council is chaired by Professor Lars Calmfors, Stockholm University and the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). The other members are Professor Ann-Sofie Kolm, Stockholm University, Professor Tuomas Pekkarinen, VATT and the Aalto University, Helsinki, and Professor Per Skedinger,  the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) and Linnaeus University.

The Council fulfills its task primarily through the publication of labour market reports. The first report – Inför avtalsrörelsen 2016 – was published in December 2015.

The second report – Time for Larger Wage Dispersion?   (Dags för större lönespridning?) – was published in February 2016 and analysed the effects of minimum wages, wage dispersion and deteriorating skill-levels on the Swedish labour market. An extended version of the report’s summary chapter can be accessed here.

The Council’s third report – The Duality of the Swedish Labour Market   (Tudelningarna på arbetsmarknaden) – was published in February 2017. The report analyses three different dualities on the Swedish Labour Market. Firstly, Non-tradable sectors can for structural reasons be expected to develop more strongly than tradable sectors. The pay bargaining norm, according to which the so called cost mark set by the tradable sector is to be followed by all other sectors may need to be modified in order to handle this situation. Secondly, there is an overrisk of being in fixed-term employment among immigrants and low skilled. This is potentially a result of low wage dispersion. However, the analysis indicates that fixed-term employment can act as a springboard to permanent contracts. Lastly, The gap in labour market attachment between natives and foreign born is shown to be larger than the traditional measures – employment and unemployment rates – reveal. This is due to a higher incidence of fixed-term, part-time and subsidized employment in the latter group. Dowload the extended summary here.

The Council has also published a background report in English by Professor Michael C. Burda on the German labour market miracle. Download the background report here.

You can contact the Council here.

 

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Presentations in English

 

Comments on the study “Invandring och arbetsmarknaden för infödda – erfarenheter från Danmark” (Immigration and the labor market for native-born – experiences from Denmark)

Organiser: Centre for Business and Policy Studies
Stockholm, 31 januari 2017
Lars Calmfors 
Slides:  How does refugee immigration affect low-skilled in the labor market?

 

Conference– Non-standard employment

Organiser: Centraal Planbureau
Haag, Nederländerna, 18 november 2016
Per Skedinger
Slides:  Non-standard employment in Sweden

 

Lecture on minimum wages

Organiser: Linnaeus University
Växjö, 18 oktober 2016
Per Skedinger
Slides:  Minimum wages

 

Conference- The Minimum Wage: Old and New Issues

Organiser: France Stratégie
Paris, 2 september 2016
Per Skedinger
Slides:  The Right Tool to Reduce Inequalities? A Swedish Perspective

 

AER seminar: what can we learn from the German labor market miracle?

Organiser:The Swedish Labour Policy Council
Stockholm, 21 april 2016
Slides: < Michael C. Burda
 

Lectures on minimum wages

Organiser: Stockholm University
Spring 2016
Ann-Sofie Kolm
Slides:  Minimum wages 1   Minimum wages 2

 

Annual Meeting of the Finnish Economic Association

Organiser: Finnish Economic Association
Björneborg, 5 februari 2016
Per Skedinger
Slides:  Labour Markets in Finland and Sweden – A Swedish Perspective