Skill-Biased Policy Change: Governing the Transition to the Knowledge Economy in Germany, Sweden and Britain

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Diessner, Sebastian; Durazzi, Niccolo; Filetti, Federico; Hope, David; Kleider, Hanna; Tonelli, Simone
• 署名单位: Leiden University; Leiden University - Excl LUMC; University of Edinburgh; Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of London; King's College London; University of Bologna
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.70072
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: POLITICAL-ECONOMY; higher-education; labor-markets; minimum-wage; MODEL; INEQUALITY; institutions; strategies; REFORM; end

摘要

How have advanced capitalist democracies transitioned from a Fordist to a post-Fordist, knowledge-based economy? And why have they followed seemingly similar policy trajectories despite different economic models and sectoral specializations? We develop the notion of skill-biased policy change to answer these questions. Drawing on a distinction between valence and partisan issues in the transition to the knowledge economy, we highlight the partisan and business group politics underpinning different policy areas to argue that policies that create or mobilize high-level skills attract relatively broader consensus across political parties and business groups than protective labor market policies targeted at the lower end of the skills distribution. The argument is illustrated through case studies of Germany, Sweden, and the UK-three countries that have transitioned to a knowledge-based economy but that have done so by relying on markedly different sectoral specializations.