Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Postwar growth: an overview
- 2 Institutions and economic growth: Europe after World War II
- 3 The varieties of Eurosclerosis: the rise and decline of nations since 1982
- 4 Why the 1950s and not the 1920s? Olsonian and non-Olsonian interpretations of two decades of German economic history
- 5 Convergence, competitiveness and the exchange rate
- 6 British economic growth since 1945: relative economic decline … and renaissance?
- 7 Economic growth in postwar Belgium
- 8 France, 1945–92
- 9 Economic growth and the Swedish model
- 10 Characteristics of economic growth in the Netherlands during the postwar period
- 11 Portuguese postwar growth: a global approach
- 12 Growth and macroeconomic performance in Spain, 1939–93
- 13 Irish economic growth, 1945–88
- 14 Italy
- 15 West German growth and institutions, 1945–90
- 16 An exercise in futility: East German economic growth and decline, 1945–89
- 17 Postwar growth of the Danish economy
- 18 Reflections on the country studies
- Index
9 - Economic growth and the Swedish model
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Postwar growth: an overview
- 2 Institutions and economic growth: Europe after World War II
- 3 The varieties of Eurosclerosis: the rise and decline of nations since 1982
- 4 Why the 1950s and not the 1920s? Olsonian and non-Olsonian interpretations of two decades of German economic history
- 5 Convergence, competitiveness and the exchange rate
- 6 British economic growth since 1945: relative economic decline … and renaissance?
- 7 Economic growth in postwar Belgium
- 8 France, 1945–92
- 9 Economic growth and the Swedish model
- 10 Characteristics of economic growth in the Netherlands during the postwar period
- 11 Portuguese postwar growth: a global approach
- 12 Growth and macroeconomic performance in Spain, 1939–93
- 13 Irish economic growth, 1945–88
- 14 Italy
- 15 West German growth and institutions, 1945–90
- 16 An exercise in futility: East German economic growth and decline, 1945–89
- 17 Postwar growth of the Danish economy
- 18 Reflections on the country studies
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In the middle of the nineteenth century, Sweden was among the poorest countries in Europe. Approximately 80 per cent of the population was engaged in the agricultural sector. Signs of a take-off in economic growth emerged in the 1850s. In the early 1870s, industrialization based on raw materials, notably iron ore and lumber, provided a base for sustained economic growth, which continued largely uninterrupted for one hundred years. The Swedish economic growth rate was the highest of all industrialized countries during the period 1870–1970 (Maddison, 1990). This exceptional and remarkably smooth growth made Sweden one of the most affluent countries in the world by the late 1960s. Since then economic performance has been weak compared to other industrialized countries, and in terms of GDP per capita Sweden is now no more than average among the OECD countries.
This long-run development makes Sweden an interesting case. How can we explain this pattern of rapid economic growth, sustained for an extraordinarily long period of time, which was interrupted fairly abruptly and followed by the current period of slow growth and relative decline? Much of the industrialized world has experienced a slowdown since the early 1970s, but in Sweden this development has been particularly pronounced.
The purpose of this study is to identify the ‘ultimate’ causes of Swedish growth performance relative to other OECD countries in the postwar period. We aim to explain the slow economic growth since the early 1970s. The analysis is largely exploratory. We can only roughly, if at all, quantify the relative importance of the various explanations we shall put forward.
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- Information
- Economic Growth in Europe since 1945 , pp. 240 - 289Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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