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This chapter examines the transformation of the Nordic welfare state during the 1990s and 2000s, focusing on the impact of financial market deregulation in the 1980s and 1990s. The Nordic model, characterized by a sizable public sector, high living standards, and comprehensive social insurance systems, evolved under the influence of Social Democracy in the post-war era. Significant changes in this model were driven by structural shifts in the global economy, particularly the deregulation of financial markets and the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). These changes facilitated the globalization of trade and finance, leading to increased acceptance of privately owned companies in welfare services and the liberalization of markets previously dominated by public monopolies. The chapter explores how these shifts influenced welfare policies, organizational structures, and economic dynamics, highlighting the interplay between global economic trends and local contexts. Through a detailed analysis of the Nordic countries' responses to these changes, the chapter sheds light on the complex interactions between economic forces and policy making that have shaped the modern Nordic welfare state then and now.

This research note contains the third update of the research program “A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden,” (nr. M22-0029) awarded by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond’s in 2022. The document summarizes work in progress and is updated annually in different versions according to the requirements of the program. 

This interdisciplinary program aims to understand the economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities of the ongoing industrial transformation in northern Sweden. A key element of the program is to identify drivers, obstacles, and preconditions in a historical, present, and forward-looking process-perspective. 

Artiklen är ett debattinlägg som poängterar att konvergens var ett internationellt fenomen som i hög utsträckning förklarar svensk tillväxt under efterkrigstiden. Sveriges relativt lägre tillväst under perioden berodde främst på en hög BNP per capita efter Andra Världskriget och inte på svenska institutionella säregenskaper.

This article reassesses the role of national institutions in explaining Sweden’s relative growth performance during the postwar period and its subsequent economic adjustment. Departing from the assumption that countries within a convergence club share broadly similar growth‑relevant institutions, the analysis argues that periods of convergence growth imply limited effective institutional variation at the national level. Using a simple Solow‑type convergence framework, the article demonstrates that Sweden’s postwar growth shortfall (1950–1973) can be explained almost entirely by initial income levels, with a strong negative relationship between initial GDP per capita and subsequent growth and a negligible country‑specific residual. Under such conditions, institution‑specific explanations—such as hypotheses of uniquely growth‑inhibiting Swedish regulations—lack empirical support and can be falsified.

Rather than rejecting institutional theory, the article reframes its temporal relevance. During periods of convergence, international institutional frameworks—most notably Bretton Woods and GATT—are argued to have set the effective boundaries for national policy, producing high degrees of institutional convergence and predictable growth patterns. National institutional particularities become analytically salient primarily in periods of structural change rather than steady‑state convergence.

The analysis then turns to developments after 1973, showing that Sweden does not exhibit a persistent divergence from comparable economies until the late 1980s. This shift is interpreted as a path‑dependent collision between institutions rooted in the Bretton Woods order and intensified international transformation pressures, particularly emanating from global financial markets. Evidence from international financial indicators suggests that phenomena often interpreted as uniquely Swedish—such as the “financial ice age”—were in fact transnational. Sweden’s comparatively problematic adjustment to the neoliberal era is therefore tentatively explained by the stability and prior effectiveness of its institutional arrangements, which rendered them more difficult to dismantle under rapidly changing external conditions.

Overall, the article argues for a periodized institutional analysis of economic growth, distinguishing between phases of convergence, where international institutions dominate, and phases of transformation, where national institutional legacies critically shape adjustment trajectories.

This article traces the development of environmental economic history focusing on the Nordic countries over the past decades. In doing so, a definition of environmental economic history is presented to distinguish the field of research from traditional economic history as well as environmental history. As shown, the field developed both in relation to environmental economics and by providing historical perspectives to the current environmental debate. The article concludes that it is important for students in the field to integrate theoretically rooted environmental perspectives into the traditional economic historical research.

This research note contains an update of the research program “A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden,” (nr. M22-0029) awarded by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond’s in 2022. The document summarizes work in progress and is updated annually in different versions according to the requirements of the program. 

This interdisciplinary program aims to understand the economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities of the ongoing industrial transformation in northern Sweden. A key element of the program is to identify drivers, obstacles, and preconditions in a historical, present, and forward-looking process-perspective. 

This study uses reconstructions of historical Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA) in Sweden from 1970–2020 to present a time series approach that analyses the demand for environmental services. The paper’s aim is to analyse environmental adaptation as a historical, economic and environmental process and to explore structural shifts suggestive of an overall periodisation of environmental demand. The article contributes to a deeper understanding of demand-side factors in environmental adaptation as part of contemporary economic history. The investigation also provides evidence that the income elasticity of environmental demand was slightly higher than 1.0 and largely stable over time, and even though we were able to detect trend breaks, there is insufficient evidence for major structural breaks suggesting sharp shifts in societal environmental preferences. Policies requiring sharply rising environmental expenditures should consider this level of historical stability.

This document lays out the background for the research program “A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden,” (nr. M22-0029) awarded by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond’s in 2022. The document summarizes work in progress and may therefore be updated and republished in different versions according to the requirements of the program. 

This interdisciplinary program aims to understand the economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities of the ongoing industrial transformation in northern Sweden. A key element of the program is to identify drivers, obstacles, and preconditions in a historical, present, and forward-looking process-perspective. 

This article examines the growth of the waste and recycling sector in Sweden since the 1970s and seeks to identify the conditions for market growth and underlying business dynamics. The article identifies a slow growth pattern at aggregate level in the 1970s, while a major shift toward higher growth rates took place only in the mid-1990s. Resembling the findings of existing studies of German and US industry counterparts, Swedish recycling companies grew larger in the 1970s and more knowledge-intensive from the 1980s. Our study concludes that the growth of the Swedish recycling industry has been driven not only by government policies addressing household waste but even more so by large manufacturing firms that have increasingly demanded more complex recycling services over time.