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| 2. |
- Andersson, David, et al.
(författare)
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Making a Market : Infrastructure, Integration, and the Rise of Innovation
- 2023
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Ingår i: Review of Economics and Statistics. - : MIT Press. - 0034-6535 .- 1530-9142. ; 105:2, s. 258-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We exploit exogenous variation arising from the historical rollout of the Swedish railroad network across municipalities to identify the impacts of improved transport infrastructure on innovative activity. A network connection led to a local surge in patenting due to an increased entry and productivity of inventors. As the railroad network expanded, inventors in connected areas began to develop ideas with applications outside the local economy, which were subsequently sold to firms along the network. Our findings suggest that reductions in communication and transportation costs were an important driver of the historical emergence of a market for ideas.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Elites and the Expansion of Education in 19th-century Sweden
- 2016
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Did economic and political inequality hamper the spread of mass schooling in the 19th century? This paper analyzes the link between investments in primary schooling and the spread of voting rights in 19th-century Sweden using newly collected data on educational expenditure and the distribution of voting rights in local governments. We find that municipalities governed by local elites spent substantially more on primary schooling relative to those that were more egalitarian. This empirical result is robust to using matching estimators, comparing municipalities located within the same county or district, and using differences in agricultural suitability as an instrument for the presence of local landed elites. Broadly, these findings suggest that elites were historically not always a barrier to the diffusion of elementary education and further our understanding of how Sweden managed to maintain a high level of human capital despite its low level of economic development and restricted franchise in the 19th century.
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| 4. |
- 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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| 5. |
- 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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| 6. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
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American geography of opportunity reveals European origins
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 116:13, s. 6045-6050
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A large literature documents how intergenerational mobility-the degree to which (dis)advantage is passed on from parents to children-varies across and within countries. Less is known about the origin or persistence of such differences. We show that US areas populated by descendants to European immigrants have similar levels of income equality and mobility as the countries their forebears came from: highest in areas dominated by descendants to Scandinavian and German immigrants, lower in places with French or Italian heritage, and lower still in areas with British roots. Similar variation in mobility is found for the black population and when analyzing causal place effects, suggesting that mobility differences arise at the community level and extend beyond descendants of European immigrant groups. Our findings indicate that the geography of US opportunity may have deeper historical roots than previously recognized.
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| 7. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
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Collaboration and Connectivity : Historical Evidence from Patent Records
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early-20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. These results suggest that the declining costs of interacting with others is fundamental to account for the long-term increase in inventive collaboration.
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| 8. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
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Collaboration and connectivity : Historical evidence from patent records
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Urban Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0094-1190 .- 1095-9068. ; 139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early -20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. These results suggest that the declining costs of interacting with others is fundamental to account for the long-term increase in inventive collaboration.
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| 9. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
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Did the Computer Revolution shift the fortunes of U.S. cities? Technology shocks and the geography of new jobs
- 2016
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Ingår i: Regional Science and Urban Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0166-0462. ; 57, s. 38-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper shows how the Computer Revolution of the 1980s shifted the economic trajectories of U.S. cities. Examining the emergence of new occupational titles in official census classifications, we document a sharp reversal in the skill content of new jobs. While technological change was biased towards routine skills throughout the 1970s, new job titles mainly appeared in occupations and industries that required abstract skills after 1980. This reversal is also reflected in the geography of new jobs. Following the Computer Revolution, the creation of new jobs shifted towards cities with endowments of analytical and interactive skills. Our results suggest that the recent divergence of U.S. cities can in part be explained by the complementarities between new technologies and skill endowments.
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| 10. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
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DP18147 Inventors among the “Impoverished Sophisticate”
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to World War I drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden’s industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children’s opportunities to become an inventor, we show that inventors were disproportionately drawn from privileged family backgrounds. However, among the middle- and working-class children that managed to overcome the barriers to entry, innovation was a path to upward mobility.
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