Why are Swedes sick but Finns unemployed?

Abstract

While the Finnish and Swedish social security systems are structurally quite similar, the two countries show marked differences both in the recipiency rates of sickness and work disability benefits and in the level of open un­employment. In Sweden, the usage of sickness‐related benefits since the beginning of the 1990s has varied in inverse relation to the level of registered unemployment, whereas in Fin­land, recipiency rates of sickness and work disability benefits have remained fairly constant, registered unemployment having typically been more than twice the Swedish level. Using the available statistical data, the article explores the differences in the prevalences of sickness, work disability and unemployment benefits between Sweden and Finland. Factors that may explain the divergence between the two countries are sought and interpreted from the long‐term differences in welfare‐state strategies and the structural features of the social security systems under investigation.