<scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 Pandemic: A Catalyst for More Comprehensive Unemployment Benefits for the Self‐Employed in Scandinavia?

ABSTRACT Although welfare state developments are often researched as long‐term processes, crises such as the pandemic may induce short‐term reactions with long‐term effects. This article delves into the changes made to the income security of self‐employed workers in Denmark, Norway and Sweden during the pandemic and throughout 2023. The social partners in Scandinavia could be expected to be involved in the development of new income security institutions or in the adjustments of existing institutions targeting self‐employed individuals. Hence, we further study the role, if any, social partners played in the changes that were made during the pandemic. The article draws on path‐dependence and institutional change theories and employs key informant interviews with social partners, members of government, and government agency representatives, complemented by document analysis. Its findings show that the social partners were highly involved in decisions on national changes made to unemployment benefit arrangements for self‐employed individuals, and the changes were mostly path‐dependent. To make swift policy adjustments, the actors in Denmark and Norway explicitly agreed that the new income security schemes developed were to be temporary measures. In Sweden, the existing scheme was temporarily adjusted, and some of these changes are now permanent.