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Swedish regional GDP 1855-2000 Estimations and general trends in the Swedish regional system

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

This paper uses a method devised by Geary and Stark to estimate regional GDPs for 24 Swedish provinces 1855-2007. In empirical tests, we find that the Swedish estimations yield results of good precision, comparable to those reported in the international literature. From the literature, we generate six expectations concerning the development of regional GDPs in Sweden. Using the GDP estimations, we test these expectations empirically. We find that the historical regional GDPs show a high correlation over time, but that the early industrialization process co-evolved with a dramatic redistribution of productive capacity. We show that the regional inequalities in GDP per capita were at their lowest point in modern history in the early 1980s. However, while efficiency in the regional system has never been as equal, absolute regional differences in scale of production has increased dramatically over our investigated period. This process has especially benefited the metropolitan provinces. We present detailed sources of our estimations and also sketch a research agenda from our results.

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

47-89

Publication/Series

Research in Economic History

Volume

30

Document type

Book chapter

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • regional GDPs
  • convergence
  • Geary-Stark method

Status

Published

Project

  • Swedish Historical Regional Accounts 1571–2010
  • Swedish Regional Economic Growth in a European Perspective

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0363-3268