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THE PROJECT
Turning the gears of progress: Examining the effects on skills and employment of the technological landscape of post-World War II Sweden is an economic history project at the University of Gothenburg, funded by Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius Stiftelse Tore Browaldhs Stiftelse.
We study the effects of postwar technological change on the workforce’s occupational skills in Sweden. New technology is a double-edged sword: it improves living standards through higher real wages but also renders acquired skills obsolete. At times, technology has also led to monotonous tasks through mechanization. One such period occurred in Sweden, 1945–1970. Many associate this with a golden age for workers, but that overlooks the rapid standardization of job tasks that took place in working life. The project will illustrate this double-edged development in agriculture through a quantitative study based on the primary records of the agricultural statistics.
PROJECT NEWS:
The project “Turning the Gears of Progress” will be presented at:
Agricliometrics IV, May 18-19, 2026, University of Alcala de Henares, Spain
Joint Baltic Connections and the Scandinavian Society for Economic and Social History Conference, June 10-12, 2026, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
TEAM
Svante Prado (Project Coordinator)
Svante is currently the head of the Economic History Unit at the University of Gothenburg and Editor-in-Chief of the Scandinavian Economic History Review. His research interests include Swedish wages and labour markets, international productivity comparisons, technological change and skills, and income distribution in Sweden since the mid-nineteenth century. His work is supported by RJ, VR, and the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation. It has been published in the Economic History Review, Explorations in Economic History, Cliometrica, and the European Review of Economic History.
Suvi Heikkuri (Postdoctoral Researcher)
Suvi has been working in the project since July 2024. She holds a PhD in economic history from the University of Gothenburg. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Siena, Italy. Her research focuses on technological change, labor markets, income inequality, and human capital and skills.
Onur Yükçü (Collaborating researcher)
Onur is an Assistant Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and an affiliated researcher at the University of Gothenburg. He previously worked in the project as a postdoctoral researcher. Onur holds a PhD in Economic History from the Carlos III University of Madrid, where he also served as a predoctoral researcher and lecturer.
Johan Ericsson (Collaborating researcher)
Johan is a researcher at the Department of Economic History and co-director of the Uppsala History of Inequality and Labor Lab at Uppsala University. His work primarily focuses on issues related to living standards, labor markets, and state capacity. He is also interested in automated transcription using machine learning methods. His research has been funded by Forte and the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, and published in the Journal of Economic History and the European Review of Economic History.
Research assistants
Mano Schneider
Kondwani Happy Ngoma
Mathias Krusell
Irene Elmerot
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