ABSTRACT
This chapter explores income distributions in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and compares these distributions to those of some other industrial nations. “Markets and politics, the invisible hand and the visible hand, can be seen as institutionalized, partly alternative, strategies or arenas for mobilization of resources, distribution of rewards and the steering of society”. The influence of family structures on the distribution of income occurs, first, in the way individual incomes add up to family income; and second, in what well-being individual family members derive from the use of aggregate family income. Compared to the non-Nordic nations, it is clear that the fairly egalitarian income distribution in the Nordic countries cannot be attributed to an egalitarian distribution in any specific age groups, but is a more global aspect of the societies. Regarding the combined effect of transfers and taxes on income redistribution, the Nordic welfare states are the most redistributive ones—Sweden leads Finland and Norway.
