Olle Krantz

Nordic historical National Accounts since the 1880s

Abstract In many respects the history of National Accounts (NA) and of Historical National Accounts (HNA) is common to all the Nordic countries, The first rudimentary accounts can be found by the end of the nineteenth century while the first income tax statistics of the early twentieth century provided a further stimulus. It was the 1920s and the 1930s, however, that saw the real breakthrough. In Sweden it took the form of HNA, and in the other countries the form of NA, with Denmark and Norway in the lead. The commodity-flow method provided the common characteristic. Later developments somewhat differed in the individual countries. All participated in the Kuznets project ofHNA. Denmark and Norway had obtained new series by the mid 1960s and the early 1970s. Sweden and Finland came later, at the end of the 1980s, and consequently today have the most up-to-date series. These though reveal differences in methodology and a new project has been started, whose aim is to revive the spirit of Nordic community.

Swedish Historical National Accounts, 1800–2000: Principles and Implications of a New Generation

Abstract A new set of data and estimates of historical national accounts for Sweden is concluded with the project Structural Change in the Swedish Economy, 1800–1980: Construction and Analysis of National Product Series. This article provides a short overview of earlier efforts, beginning in the 1930s, to construct historical national accounts and an account of the present project. The new estimates resulted in partly new representations of economic growth and change. They are also compared with earlier data. Furthermore, effects of the deflation techniques ( i.e., double deflation) are analyzed by comparing the series with those resulting from single deflation. Finally, structural changes are analyzed using modern time series analysis.

Institutions in the transport and communications industries : State and private actors in the making of institutional patterns, 1850-1990

Institutions in the transport and communications industries : State and private actors in the making of institutional patterns, 1850-1990

Historical national accounts — some methodological notes

Abstract The oldest known attempts to construct aggregates summarising the total economic activity of a nation were made by William Petty in 1665 and 1676. 1 These estimates, relating to the national income of England, were published at the beginning of the 1690s. Six years later a new and now celebrated estimate of Englands national income was compiled by Gregory King.2 His calculations were more detailed than Pettys and probably more carefully executed.

Store drømmer og harde realiteter: Veibygging og biltrafikk i Norge, 1912–1960 [Big dreams and hard realities: roadbuilding and car traffic in Norway, 1912–1960]

Store drommer og harde realiteter: Veibygging og biltrafikk i Norge, 1912–1960 [Big dreams and hard realities: roadbuilding and car traffic in Norway, 1912–1960]

Creating Nordic Capitalism: The Business History of a Competitive Periphery

1. Smith, Anthony D., The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986, 22 29; Smith, Anthony D., Opening Statements: Nations and their Pasts, Nations and Nationalism, vol. 2, 1996: 358 365; Gellner, Ernest, Ernest Gellner’s reply: Do Nations Have Navels?, Nations and Nationalism, vol. 2, 1996: 366 370. 2. Korsgaard, Ove, The Danish way to establish the Nation in the Hearts of the People, in National Identity and the Varieties of Capitalism: The Danish Experience, Eds John L. Campbell, Johan A. Hall & Ove K. Pedersen. Montreal, Kingston, London & Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2006.

Economy and history — A dissiden journal

Abstract Before the 1940s, research in economic history in Sweden was conducted in the history departments, which usually meant studies using traditional historical methods applied to economic source material. Furthermore, historically interested economists studied economic history using economics methods. However, there was one outstanding character who specialised in economic history proper, Eli F. Heckscher. After completing his doctoral thesis on an economic history topic in 1907, he held a chair in economics at the Stockholm School of Economics but was then appointed to a personal chair in economic history in the 1930s.

Are data unimportant in business cycle analysis

Abstract Recently, Michael Bergman and Lars Jonung (BJ) concluded that economic fluctuations in Sweden and in the U.S. over a hundred-year perspective have not been dampened.1 In short, their method was “to measure the volatility as standard deviations in trend-adjusted data, and test for potential differences in variances across the periods 1873–1913 and 1948–1988.” (p. 24) In this comment I am not going to discuss their methodology per se, but instead the underlying production data for Sweden. Nobody would claim, I am sure, that even the most excellent econometric methodology can lead to robust and reliable results of an analysis when the data material is inappropriate or insufficient.

Macroeconomic history in Sweden

Abstract The term macrohistory can have reference to the overall history of large units, e.g. world development during the last two hundred years, or European history in the Middle Ages. Another example is the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Yet another is the macrohistorical problem posed by Jones in a recently-published book. He pursues the thesis that tendencies to economic growth have been present in most societies but that for various reasons they have been prevented from becoming more than just tendencies: “Why Europe rather than China?”1