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| 2. |
- Andersson, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Elites and the expansion of education in nineteenth-century Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: Economic History Review. - : Wiley. - 1468-0289 .- 0013-0117. ; 72:3, s. 897-924
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A large literature emphasizes that elite capture of political institutions hampered the spread of mass schooling in the nineteenth and twentieth century. We collect new data on investments in elementary education and the distribution of voting rights for more than 2,000 local governments in nineteenth‐century Sweden and document that educational expenditure was higher where the distribution of political power was more unequal. In particular, areas governed by local landed elites—even those where a single landowner had de jure dictatorial powers—invested substantially more in mass schooling relative to areas where political power was more widely shared, or where it lay in the hands of capitalist elites. Our findings lend quantitative support to an earlier literature produced by economic and social historians which argues that landed elites advanced mass schooling as part of their historical role as patrons of the local community and as a response to the increasing proletarianization of the rural population, while also furthering our understanding of how Sweden maintained a high level of human capital despite its low level of economic development and restricted franchise in the nineteenth century.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Lars-Fredrik, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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The compulsory public pension and the demand for life insurance : the case of Sweden, 1884–19141
- 2015
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Ingår i: Economic history review. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0013-0117 .- 1468-0289. ; 68:1, s. 244-263
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We employ cost-of-living surveys, business archives, and firm data to examine the impact of the compulsory pension on the demand for life insurance in Sweden from 1884 to 1914—a period that covers the implementation of the first public compulsory old-age pension reform and the take-off of industry life insurance. As predicted on the basis of the contemporary literature on crowding-out effects, we find that the compulsory pension reduced the demand for life insurance. Our panel-data analysis of lapse rates on insurance policies shows a significant crowding-out effect of pension payments. We conclude that the introduction of the general compulsory pension had a crowding-out effect on households’ holdings of insurance policies.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Lars Fredrik, Docent, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Workplace accidents and workers solidarity: mutual health insurance in early twentieth-century Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Economic history review. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0013-0117 .- 1468-0289. ; 75:1, s. 203-234
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the industrialization period, the rate of workplace-related accidents increased. Because of the lack of public insurance, mutual health insurance societies became the main providers of workplace accident insurance among workers. Due to large differences in accident risk, health insurance societies were potentially exposed to the risk of adverse selection, since they employed equal pricing for all members regardless of risk profile. This article investigates the impact of workplace accident risk on health insurance selection and outcomes. We employ household budget surveys encompassing urban workers in Sweden during the early twentieth century. We find evidence for a redistribution from low- to high-risk-exposed workers, as workplace accident risk had a significant and positive impact on receiving health insurance benefits, also when controlling for a variety of factors. Workers exposed to greater risks in the workplace were more likely to have health insurance but did not pay higher premiums. The redistribution from low- to high-risk-exposed workers was largely accepted and viewed as an act of solidarity between workers. Given that health insurance societies were aware of this redistribution, we argue for the presence of informed, rather than adverse, selection.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Mercantilist Inequality: Wealth and Poverty in Stockholm 1650–1750
- 2022
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Ingår i: Economic History Review. - : Wiley. - 1468-0289 .- 0013-0117. ; 75:1, s. 157-180
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article describes and analyses social structure, poverty, wealth, and economic inequality in Stockholm from 1650 to 1750. We begin by establishing the social structure, using census data and other sources. To study wealth and poverty, the main sources are a complete record of the wealth tax of 1715, comprising 17,782 taxpayers, and a total of 1,125 probate inventories sampled from the years 1650, 1700, and 1750. These provide detailed and sometimes surprising insights into the living standards of both the poor and the rich. Stockholm in this period was a starkly unequal city, with the top decile of wealth holders owning about 90 per cent of total wealth. We relate this inequality to mercantilist policies. The city was run as an oligarchy and the oligarchical political institutions engendered policies that were rigged for inequality. The case of Stockholm thus shows the need for the historical inequality literature to consider class and power relations to understand the determinants of inequality.
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| 7. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Wealth inequality in Sweden 1750–1900
- 2018
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Ingår i: Economic History Review. - : Wiley. - 1468-0289 .- 0013-0117. ; 71:3, s. 772-794
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines the evolution of wealth inequality in Sweden from 1750 to 1900, contributing both to the debate on early modern and modern inequality and to the general debate on the pattern of inequality during industrialization. The pre‐industrial period (1750–1850) is for the first time examined for Sweden at the national level. The study uses a random sample of probate inventories from urban and rural areas across the country, adjusted for age and social class. Estimates are provided for the years 1750, 1800, 1850, and 1900. The results show a gradual growth in inequality as early as the mid‐eighteenth century, with the sharpest rise in the late nineteenth century. Whereas the early growth in inequality was connected to changes in the countryside and in agriculture, the later growth was related to industrialization encompassing both compositional effects and strong wealth accumulation among the richest. The level of inequality in Sweden in 1750 was lower than for other western European countries, but by 1900 Sweden was just as unequal.
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| 8. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Wealth inequality in Sweden, 1750–1900†
- 2018
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Ingår i: Economic history review. - 0013-0117. ; 71, s. 772-794
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines the evolution of wealth inequality in Sweden from 1750 to 1900, contributing both to the debate on early modern and modern inequality and to the general debate on the pattern of inequality during industrialization. The pre-industrial period (1750–1850) is for the first time examined for Sweden at the national level. The study uses a random sample of probate inventories from urban and rural areas across the country, adjusted for age and social class. Estimates are provided for the years 1750, 1800, 1850, and 1900. The results show a gradual growth in inequality as early as the mid-eighteenth century, with the sharpest rise in the late nineteenth century. Whereas the early growth in inequality was connected to changes in the countryside and in agriculture, the later growth was related to industrialization encompassing both compositional effects and strong wealth accumulation among the richest. The level of inequality in Sweden in 1750 was lower than for other western European countries, but by 1900 Sweden was just as unequal.
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| 9. |
- Berger, Thor
(författare)
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Adopting a new technology : potatoes and population growth in the periphery
- 2019
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Ingår i: Economic History Review. - : Wiley. - 0013-0117 .- 1468-0289. ; 72:3, s. 869-896
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden's population doubled in size between 1750 and 1850 despite a century of stagnating per capita incomes and real wages, which has led many historians to attribute the population explosion to the introduction of the potato. This article provides the first systematic evidence on the potato's contribution to Swedish living standards and population growth. Potatoes at least doubled output per acre, and welfare ratios that account for potato consumption imply that they raised living standards significantly for labourers. Estimates that exploit regional differences in the suitability of land for cultivating potatoes further show that cities, counties, and rural parishes with more land suitable for potato cultivation experienced a sharp relative acceleration in population growth as the potato spread in the early nineteenth century. An expansion of the population was mainly driven by relative increases in fertility and, consistent with Malthusian predictions, there was no long-run impact on per capita incomes. According to these estimates, the introduction and spread of the potato can account for one-tenth of population growth between 1800 and 1850, thus suggesting that it was an important catalyst for the Swedish population explosion.
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| 10. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
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Firm survival and the rise of the factory
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Ingår i: Economic History Review. - 0013-0117.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper uses longitudinal establishment-level data to trace the rise of the factory during Sweden's industrialization between 1864 and 1890. We document a sharp shift from the small artisan shop to the mechanized factory, which can largely be ascribed to differences in survival. Whilst non-mechanized establishments could compete with the factory during early industrialization, a distinct survival advantage of the factory appeared at later stages of industrialization. The evolving advantage of the factory can mainly be attributed to its larger scale, labour productivity, and technology use. By the end of the nineteenth century, these factors became increasingly important determinants of firm survival.
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