Rozpočtová politika skandinávských zemí

The aim of the thesis was to analyze the budgetary policy of Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, and compare it with the theory of the welfare state. Because of the economic crisis in the first half of the 1990s, Scandinavian countries had to adopt a number of budgetary measures in order to stabilize public finances. These reforms were successful, until 2009 all 4 countries managed to maintain balanced or positive primary fiscal balances. They managed to reduce systematically gross public debt-to-GDP ratio and today Scandinavian countries have one of the lowest debts in the European Union. The dependency ratio is estimated to rise sharply in the future and since the Nordic countries are aware of the importance of long-term sustainability of pension schemes, they strive to combine the advantages of pay-as-you-go and funded schemes. On the other hand, the share of private funding and market provision of social security and social services is relatively small, the state is still a main source of financing welfare, as well as its provider.