ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of research on industrialisation in the Nordic countries – Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland – between 1850 and 1914. The starting point is Lennart Jörberg’s classic synthesis from 1973, and the article traces how the subsequent debate has developed across themes such as: the explanatory power of the export model and the home market model; technological transfer, human capital, and the capacity to industrialise; the role of energy systems; and productivity, labour markets, and industrial organisation. These themes were selected because they capture the research questions that have most persistently structured the field and connect Nordic scholarship to wider international debates. The article shows how Nordic research has gradually been integrated into international scientific discussions, and how new methods, data and perspectives – including revised national accounts, microdata studies and energy history – have altered our picture of the industrialisation process. The article argues that the accumulated findings of the past three decades, taken together, call for a new synthesising study – one that is genuinely Nordic in scope and that may need to revise some of the foundational assumptions about the preconditions for industrialisation that Jörberg’s framework implied.

ABSTRACT This article analyses the political economy of state ownership and privatisation in Spain through the lens of strategic selectivity [Jessop, B. (2002). The future of the capitalist state. Polity Press] and recent theories of hybrid state capitalism. It argues that the creation and endurance of the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) reflect not a withdrawal of the state from the economy but its strategic adaptation. By adopting a hybrid holding structure, the Spanish state developed a mechanism that provided managerial autonomy and economic flexibility while maintaining long-term strategic influence. SEPI can be understood as a state holding company responsible for managing the Spanish state's portfolio of corporate shareholdings, although legally it is constituted as a public law entity operating largely under private law. This selective institutional design allowed the state to navigate the constraints of European integration and fiscal discipline, transforming its role from a direct producer to a sophisticated strategic shareholder.

ABSTRACT Previous studies have found very high levels of income inequality in Finland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries [Roikonen, P. (2022). Income inequality in Finland, 1865–2019. Scandinavian Economic History Review, 70(3), 234–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2021.1901774; Roikonen, P., & Heikkinen, S. (2020). A Kuznets rise and a Piketty fall: Income inequality in Finland, 1865–1934. European Review of Economic History, 24(1), 46–79.]. These results align with findings from the other Nordic countries. This applies to both Roikonen & Heikkinen [(2020). A Kuznets rise and a Piketty fall: Income inequality in Finland, 1865–1934. European Review of Economic History, 24(1), 46–79.] and Roikonen [(2022). Income inequality in Finland, 1865–2019. Scandinavian Economic History Review, 70(3), 234–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2021.1901774]. This study strives to improve their estimations by homogenising the tax unit population with the removal of corporations, by estimating the average income within the top bracket using more realistic assumptions, and by extrapolating the income share of the exempted tax units with an exponential distribution. The top 1 percent's share in 19th century falls significantly in comparison to these previous estimates. The Gini coefficient, however, changed gradually. It is argued that the new estimate of the top 1 percent's share aligns with well-known theses on the development of inequality under industrialisation and urbanisation [Kuznets, S. (1955). Economic growth and income inequality. American Economic Review, 45(1), 1–28; Marx, K. (2024). Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1 (P. Reitter & P. North, Eds., Transl. Paul Reitter). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1872); Milanovic, B., Lindert, P. H., & Williamson, J. G. (2011). Pre-industrial inequality. Economic Journal, 121(551), 255–272. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02403.x]. At the same time, the trends in the Gini coefficient suggests that the changes in overall inequality may have been more muted.

ABSTRACT Equity issues are a crucial part of properly functioning financial markets as they facilitate the allocation of capital to its most efficient use. Historically, publicly listed firms have often had superior opportunities to raise new equity capital from investors. This paper analyses equity issuances and their role as a source of capital to Finnish firms listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange (HSE) from 1912 to 1981. The results show that the role of the stock exchange in helping companies raise new equity capital in Finland was perhaps more significant than previously thought. The results also show that economic and stock market development influences the timing of the seasoned equity issues. The decision to allow companies to deduct dividends paid on newly issued equity since 1969 has clearly increased cash issues. A newly updated and extended historical database on corporate capital actions for the Finnish stock market is used in the analysis.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the role of total factor productivity (TFP), often used to proxy technological change, in building resilience against economic shrinking. Technological change is an important engine of economic growth, yet its role in helping to avoid GDP per capita contractions in the long run is less clear. Increasingly, research is showing that avoiding negative growth episodes, or shrinking, may be equally important for sustainable development. TFP is the primary differentiator in between-country incomes, yet it has not been studied from a shrinking perspective. This study employs a novel growth accounting extension to decompose TFP into positive and negative performance components. Using a global country sample and selected case studies reveals distinct positive and negative TFP performance patterns across country groupings between 1961 and 2019. Negative TFP performance is found to be the key limiting factor for catch-up growth in lower-income countries. High-income countries have mitigated negative TFP more effectively, with declining positive TFP performance lowering their trend TFP growth in recent decades. Resilience against shrinking appears to be a necessary, though insufficient, condition for trend TFP growth to emerge, suggesting that it is a key facilitator of catch-up growth.

ABSTRACT This article investigates the goals and strategies of Swedish business interest associations (BIAs) in relation to postwar European economic integration between 1949 and 1965. By situating Swedish BIAs within the context of European business organisations, it identifies three distinct phases. The first phase (1949–1955) was characterised by caution, the second (1956–1959) by a proactive strategy, and the third (1960–1965) by consolidation. The analysis draws on concepts of the associative actions of BIAs – the pressure from members and the need to achieve external efficiency – but also highlights the agency of key individuals, in particular the president of the Swedish Federation of Industry, Axel Iveroth. A key argument is that the strategies adopted were shaped by how policy issues were perceived – either as domestic concerns or European matters, which, in turn, affected which specific national branch of organised business was mobilised. The article contributes to the debate on the role of BIAs in postwar Europe, especially concerning business actors from non-EEC countries. The engagement of the Swedish BIAs and their top representatives constituted a gradual process of strategically embedding and positioning Swedish business interests in the European business world.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the interplay between fishing communities, marine ecosystems, and institutional arrangements along the Basque coast from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Drawing on archival evidence, it analyses how Basque maritime guilds built a resilient system for managing common-pool resources through monopolistic control over access to fishing grounds and fish markets, underpinned by their role in the naval recruitment system. Guilds operated as risk-management institutions that helped communities cope with ecological and economic uncertainties through the collective organisation of fishing activities, regulated fishing seasons, centralised auctions, and mutual aid mechanisms. However, this framework underwent profound transformations in the late nineteenth century due to institutional reforms and technological advances. The abolition of the Matrícula de Mar (Maritime Registry) in 1873 undermined the legal foundation of the guilds’ monopoly, while steam trawling introduced new pressures on fishing grounds and markets. Rather than collapsing, many guilds adapted, preserving elements of their risk-pooling and coordination functions. Their persistence points to the resilience of informal institutions rooted in shared community norms and practices.

ABSTRACT This paper documents changing occupational structure and skill composition during industrialisation in Sweden. Using population censuses and the HISCO/HISCLASS scheme, the paper documents a shift from unskilled to more-skilled occupations at the aggregate level. The evidence is consistent with the idea that the structural shift away from agriculture is associated with skill upgrading, though substantial portion of this upgrading took place within the major sectors. Within manufacturing, there was a shift from artisanal workshops to factories but the evidence for Sweden suggests this transition was not connected to deskilling or job polarisation as observed in the United States or England. The paper puts forward the farmwork-to-services hypothesis, arguing that expansion of the service sector offered new opportunities for occupational upgrading. This transition was particularly important for women, who faced higher barriers to entry within the manufacturing sector.

ABSTRACT This paper studies the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between 1386 and 1569, asking if there was a relationship between its institutional development and economic outcomes. Lithuania developed a more sophisticated institutional environment by the 1490s, as it transitioned from personal governance by a warrior elite to a corporation of landowners bound by public law and shared beliefs. Structural breaks in the trends of new manors and churches suggest that elite rents significantly increased around the same time, indicating economic expansion. However, urbanisation grew slowly, while GDP per capita and health data stagnated. Expanding rents and the overall economy likely did not outpace population growth, illustrating that limited access orders cannot deliver development equitably.