Many have long praised Scandinavian countries for their high levels of welfare provision and for their economic and social outcomes. It is, indeed, true that they are successful by most reasonable measures. However, Scandinavia’s success story predated the welfare state. Many analyses of Scandinavian countries conflate correlation with causality. It is very clear that many of the desirable features of Scandinavian societies, such as low income inequality, low levels of poverty and high levels of economic growth, predated the development of the welfare state. | Dr. Nima Sanandaji holds a PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and is the author of “Scandinavian Unexceptionalism: Culture, Markets and the Failure of Third Way Socialism” which is available for free online via the Institute of Economic Affairs: http://www.iea.org.uk

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