Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in Scandinavian books,periodicals and year-books, 1984

Abstract

The article analyses the development of two prominent Danish clothing producers in the years after 1960, Tage Vanggaard's dressmaking factory and the slacks manufacturer Brandtex, during which period each had their success despite the general trend within the industry. The article has as its point of departure an evaluation of the companies' strategies and the difficulties they encountered when the need arose for strategic change. It concludes that both companies got caught in what we might call a strategic paradox: their success was the result of a willingness to maintain the same strategy for about 20 years, but the problems they encountered following these years (an inability to see the world differently) was the result of the same willingness. It is argued that a key to understanding the lock-in that happened could be found in the narratives that evolved inside and around the companies.     

Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in Scandinavian books,periodicals and year-books, 1981

Abstract

This issue of the annual bibliography of the Review is arranged according to themes. Within each of the eight sub-divisions the contributors are presented in alphabetical order. The country of publication is indicated by ‘D’ ‘F’ ‘N’ or ‘S’ for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively.     

Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in Scandinavian books,periodicals and year-books, 1982

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a newly constructed database on foreign trade of Sweden–Finland 1738–1805, consisting of all exports and imports that were recorded by the custom houses in this period, and is made available at www.historia.se/Swedish foreign trade 1738_1805.xlsx. The traditional view as presented by Eli Heckscher, who was very critical of the mercantilist policies of the time, was that the overseas trade of Sweden-Finland saw a trend of secular stagnation during the course of the eighteenth century. By contrast, we show that in conjunction with a substantial expansion of the population, total trade nearly increased twofold during the period of study. Despite that, there was a small decrease in the value of exports in relation to GDP, mostly explained by a drop in the relative price of bar iron. The degree of specialisation of Swedish exports saw a declining tendency in this period. While exports from Sweden had a higher degree of specialisation than Finnish exports, imported goods to Finland were more concentrated than Swedish imports. Lastly, the composition of imports did not markedly alter, meaning that a consumer revolution did not take place in either Sweden or Finland.     

Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in scandinavian books,periodicals and year-books, 1990

Abstract

No doubt any historian — and I do not claim to be one myself — would say that it is a mistake to suppose that giants belong only to some past golden age. Yet how trippingly those names dance off the tongue — Arpi, Attman, Boethius, Friis, Glamann, Hammarström, Hildebrand, Jutikkala, Montgomery, Oden, Utterstrom and of course Ernst Söderlund, first chief editor of this journal and the moving spirit in its foundation! I pass over the point that one or two of these individuals could justifiably repudiate the status of grand old man (person?) on the ground of being still professionally active today. Be that as it may, I realised even at the time that to be entrusted with translating articles written by such figures was something of a privilege. I am still more conscious of it now, for suddenly the years have flown and I have to fight, not entirely successfully, against the temptation to feel that merely to have known them from the sidelines, as it were, in those great days possibly invests me also with a touch of grand-old-man(person)hood.     

Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in Scandinavian Books,Periodicals And Year-Books, 1980

Abstract

Recent theoretical advances reveal the importance of human capital for long-run economic growth. However, the absence of data makes it difficult to measure human capital before 1870 at the national level, let alone at the regional level within countries. By using the age heaping method and a large, new data set, we approximate the numeracy values in more than 570 regions in Europe between 1790 and 1880. The results indicate a significant gap in numeracy levels between advanced west and central European countries and the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, differences in basic numeracy between and within countries became smaller over the nineteenth century, as the periphery solved its basic numeracy problem.     

The transformation of Australian economic and social history

This article reviews the first four books published in a new Australian series entitled ‘Themes in Australian Economic and Social History’. These volumes include: A. Dingle, Aboriginal economy: patterns of experience; R.V. Jackson, The population history of Australia; W. Bate, Victorian gold rushes; A.L. Lougheed, Australia and the world economy. The series is edited by C.B. Schedvin in association with the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand and is published by McPhee Gribble Publishers, Melbourne. Each attractively presented book is approximately seventy pages long and is priced at $9.99. Further volumes in this series have been commissioned.     

Select Bibliography of Contributions to Economic and Social History Appearing in Scandinavian Books,Periodicals and Year-books, 1986

Abstract

This issue of the annual bibliography of the Review is arranged according to themes. Within each of the eight sub-divisions the contributors are presented in alphabetical order. The country of publication is indicated by ‘D’, ‘F’, ‘N’ and ‘S’ for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively.     

From growth studies to microhistory: Finnish economic and social history in the 1990s and early 2000s

Abstract

Economic and social history was already being practised in Finland before the Second World War, although it became established as an independent academic discipline only after the war. The terms social history or economic history were not used then; what we now recognise for instance as social history was then called “cultural history” or “history of the culture”. This approach was often characterised the collective approach to distinguish it from the individualistic approach of more historicist study. Nearly all economics research was historical before the 1950s, and practically all professors of economics were actually historians by training and had defended their dissertations in history, usually after having studied some economic problem of the past. But our discipline has also other roots. In Finnish universities the discipline called social policy, usually included in faculties of social science, has always had strong ties with social history.