Research

this page introduces my on-going research. See publications page for already published research. 

Income distribution in Sweden 1870-1970

From 2019 to December 2024, I led a Swedish Research Council-funded project on incomes and income distribution in Sweden from 1870 to 1970. My collaborators on the project were Jakob Molinder (Uppsala University) and Svante Prado (Gothenburg University). See for example our  paper on Stockholm 1870 to 1970 in Explorations in Economic History (2024), and my paper with Anton Svensson on incomes in Malmö 1900 to 1950 in Scandinavian Economic History Review (2023). Jakob and I have also written a related paper on the incomes of the wealthiest Swedes 1910-1950, building on a new sample (c. 15 000) of taxation records from two of Sweden's wealthiest areas, Djursholm, and Östermalm. Read the working paper here. The paper will be published in Journal of Economic History in June 2025.

As of March 2025, we are also working on a paper on the country as a whole, where new estimates of incomes in the rural sector become very important. I presented this paper at the European Social Science History Conference in Leiden in March 2025, and at the University of Copenhagen on 9 April 2025; I will also present it at the World Economic History Congress in Lund in August 2025.

An offshoot of the project is a paper with Felix Kersting of Humboldt Universität zu Berlin on the importance (or not) of rural inequality for political developments in Prussia and Sweden in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s. For more info about the paper and the agrarian inequality database see here. The paper is forthcoming in Comparative Political Studies; read here.

Neoliberalism in the Nordics

Neoliberalism in the Nordics is a large research program, active 2020-2025 and led by professor Jenny Andersson of Uppsala University. Within this programme I am working especially on wage bargaining and economic policy. 

Within the programme, I have written a paper is on the social meaning of the wage bargaining round in Sweden since the 1960s. My argument is that the wage bargaining round still is quite centralized in Sweden, so on a formal level it looks like there is a lot of continuity in Swedish industrial relations, but that the role the wage bargaining round plays in the political economy, is very different today compared to the corporatist 1960s and 1970s. This paper was published as a working paper in January 2023; read it here. It will be published in Economic and Industrial Democracy.

Another paper is on how economic policymakers interpreted and acted upon the profit squeeze of the late 1970s. This is forthcoming in the Journal of Contemporary History.

I have also written a paper on income inequality in the Nordics in the long run, co-authored with Rolf Aaberge and published in the Scandinavian Economic History Review, and a paper on inflation-fighting in Scandinavia in the 2020s, co-authored with Christian Lyhne Ibsen, Kristin Alsos, Søren Kaj Andersen, and Kristine Nergaard, published in Transfer.

In Swedish, I have a chapter on wage bargaining in Sweden in the excellent edited volume  Marknadens tid, which is freely available here. I also have a book chapter coming out in the edited volume Nordic Neoliberalisms, published by Routledge in June 2025. The chapter is about economic inequality in the Nordics in the time of neoliberalism.

Currently, beyond I am working on two papers within the programme. The first is with Eivind Thomassen (U of South-Eastern Norway) on the role of economic expertise in Swedish and Norwegian wage bargaining since the 1990s. The second is a solo-authored study of the role of economic experts in Swedish economic policy making since the 1910s.

Democratization in Sweden

From 2024 to 2027 I am working in a project led by Professor Magnus Wennerhag (Sociology, Södertörn University College) on the democratization of Sweden. The other project participants are Måns Lundstedt (Gothenburg University), Jenny Jansson and Katrin Uba (both Uppsala University).

I am working on a paper called “The development of a democratic culture: Sweden, 1866–1932”. This paper focuses on universal suffrage as a necessary element of democracy and traces initiatives for universal suffrage and broadened political participation in nineteenth century Sweden. This paper will be presented at a workshop in Sundsvall, November 2025.

My second paper within this project is preliminarily called "Incumbent Elites and Revolutionary Threat-Related Democratization: The Case of Sweden". The archival research is ongoing.

Production and living standards in southern Sweden since c. 1650

From 2020 to 2025, Mats Olsson, PhD student Marcus Falk and I were working on a project, financed by Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser, on material culture and living standards in Sweden and Denmark c. 1680-1860, building especially on probate inventories from six rural areas and from two towns, Malmo and Ystad. The main outcome of the project was Marcus's doctoral dissertation,Wealth, Consumption, and Industriousness : Evidence from southern Sweden, 1570-1860. He defended 16 May 2025.  

The first paper from the project, published in Rural History, is written by the three of us and explores the productive capacity and subsistence strategies of south Swedish rural households 1680-1865. The second paper is written by Marcus and concerns consumption and living standards in the same period. The paper is forthcoming in Social Science History. The third paper of the project, on living standards in Malmö, Ystad and Falkenberg c. 1550-1865, is published in Marcus's doctoral dissertation from May 2025, and will be submitted to a journal during the year.

Long-run income distribution between capital and labour

Daniel Waldenström  (Research Institute of Industrial Economics) and I have a paper on the distribution of income between capital and labour and income inequality in the long run. We have assembled the largest data set yet of capital shares, with 21 countries at least back to the 1930s, and most back to the second half of the 19th century, and thus can provide the most comprehensive test of the relationship between capital shares and income inequality. The paper was published in the Journal of Economic History, September 2018.

Daniel, Enrico Rubolino (Lausanne) and I have followed the previous paper with a study on the determinants of capital shares in the long run, looking at factors such as democratization, world wars, unionization, and party politics. This has been published as an IZA discussion paper in April 2020; read here. It was also published as a WID.world working paper in May 2020 and you can read their summary of the paper here.

Work in progress

submitted/in process

...

currently working on

“The Swedish Model and the Swedish Economic Policy Knowledge Regime, c. 1933–1982: The Case of Profits and Distribution”. Paper in the Neoliberalism in the Nordics programme, led by Professor Jenny Andersson (Uppsala). Presented at the Swedish Economic History Meeting, Lund, 26-27 September 2023. Will be presented at the History of Recent Economics Conference in Nijmegen, October 2025.

“Expert Economists and the Creation (or Recreation?) of the Scandinavian Model, 1990–2009”. With Eivind Thomassen, University of South-Eastern Norway. Has been presented at the Economic History Winter Games, BI Business School in Oslo, January 2025 and in Sigtuna, September 2025.

“Income inequality and structural transformation: Evidence from Swedish micro data, 1870–1970”. With Jakob Molinder (Uppsala) and Svante Prado (Gothenburg): part of the Swedish incomes project. Presented at Economic History Society conference, Belfast, April 2019; European Historical Economics Society conference, Paris, August 2019, the 13th Swedish Economic History Meeting, Uppsala, October 2019; the European Social Science History Conference, Gothenburg, 14 April 2023; European Historical Economics Society, Vienna, 1-2 September 2023; the Swedish Economic History Meeting, Lund, 26-27 September 2023; Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, October 2023; Höstmötet, Malmö, 7-8 November 2023; Utrecht University, March 2024; Danish Society for Economic and Social History workshop, Aalborg, 1 November 2024; the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC) in Leiden, March 2025; and at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics, 9 April 2025. In preparation for submission to a journal.

“The development of a democratic culture in a context of inequality: Sweden, 1866–1932”. My first paper within the project "Från politisk apati till demokrati: En undersökning av folkrörelsernas roll under Sveriges demokratisering", led by Professor Magnus Wennerhag (Södertörn). Will be presented at Mittuniversitetet, Sundsvall, November 2025 and the Danish Historical Political Economy workshop, Odense, February 2026.

“Incumbent Elites and Revolutionary Threat-Related Democratization: The Case of Sweden”. My second paper within the project "Från politisk apati till demokrati: En undersökning av folkrörelsernas roll under Sveriges demokratisering", led by Professor Magnus Wennerhag (Södertörn). Archival research ongoing.

“Job composition, gender and income inequality in the long run: Sweden, 1870–1950”. With Jakob Molinder, Uppsala University. Will be presented at University of Southern Denmark, February 2026; proposed for the Economic History Society, April 2026.

Resting papers

“What Determines the Capital Share over the Long Run of History?”. With Daniel Waldenström (IFN) and Enrico Rubolino (Lausanne). Presented in Lund, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Marseille, International Macro History Online Seminar, 18 November 2020, University of Chicago, 21 April 2022, University of Michigan, 25 April 2022, University of Helsinki, May 2023, Uppsala University, May 2023. Published as WID.world Working Paper 2020/08, read here. IZA Discussion Paper 13199, April 2020: read here. Was presented (new, revised version) at University Carlos III of Madrid, November 2024.

"How Proletarian Were the Proletarians? A New Look on the Living Standards of the Swedish Working Class during Industrialization". One for the future.

“Billionaires in the Welfare State: Sweden since 1970”. Paper in the Neoliberalism in the Nordics programme, led by Professor Jenny Andersson (Uppsala). Presented in Oslo, May 2023.