The Transformation of Ownership Policy and Structure in.pdfVIP

Forthcoming New Political Economy The Transformation of Ownership Policy and Structure in * Sweden: Convergence towards the Anglo-Saxon Model? by 1‡ 2 Magnus Henrekson and Ulf Jakobsson SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance No. 469 September 19, 2002 Abstract : We investigate the dramatic transformation of ownership policies and ownership struc- ture in Sweden during the postwar period. After WWII, Swedish ownership policies were guided by a socialist vision where the ultimate goal was abolition of private ownership. These policies came to an end in the early 1980s. Since then a large number of Swedish firms have been acquired by foreign owners or merged with foreign firms and the foreign ownership share on the Swedish Stock Exchange has increased rapidly. A central question is whether this fast transformation is merely a logical consequence of current globalization, or whether this tendency has been rein- forced by economic policies vis-à-vis the business sector in Sweden. We show that until the late 1980s, Swedish economic policy – aimed at discouraging wealth accumulation among households and favoring institutional ownership and debt financing – effectively precipitated the rapid takeover of the Swedish business sector by foreign owners that gained momentum in the 1990s. Policy