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The sickness insurance and the pension system provide economic security upon reduced working capacity and old age. The unemployment insurance has the same aim for unemployment. Most Swedes receive compensation from one of these insurances at some point in their lives. Even if the individual himself/herself might seldom benefit from the insurances, the actual knowledge of being insured creates security. In later years, there has been an increase in the importance of private insurances and insurances based on collective agreements which serve as complements to social insurance.

The regulations for these insurances and the levels of remuneration might affect people's willingness and possibilities to work. Thus, the research that is carried out mainly concerns:

-- how remuneration levels and fixed time limits affect labour supply and health.

-- how different insurances interact with each other, i.e. whether and if so how individuals are moved between different insurances and whether the levels of remuneration in the different insurances affect in which of the insurances the individual ends up and

-- how norms and attitudes that have been established within the family, among colleagues and friends and in society as a whole affect to what extent the individual himself/herself makes use of the insurances.