New Estimates of Swedish Historical GDP Since the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century*

The first Swedish historical national accounts were compiled in the 1930s, and that pioneering work formed the main basis for later estimates until now. In this paper, an attempt to construct new historical accounts for 1800–1980 is presented. First, the methodology is discussed, particularly concerning series in constant prices adapted for analysis of growth and structural changes. In principle Paasche deflators should be used, but for such a long period they are inadequate due to the huge changes in the goods composition of production as well as of consumption and investment. Instead, a division of the whole period into shorter subperiods is made and within these, Paasche deflators are applied. Then the series for the deflation periods can be linked in order to arrive at longer series. Second, some findings of the work (still in progress) are reported. The new series show a slower growth rate in the second half of the nineteenth century than the earlier ones, and Sweden can internationally no longer be seen as the country where this period's economic miracle took place. Instead, concerning rate of growth of GDP per capita as well as its level, Sweden seems to have been a middle‐way country compared to other European countries. In the first half of the 20th century, on the other hand, the growth rate was high in an international comparison. The Swedish sectoral changes followed a general pattern with decreasing agricultural and increasing industrial shares. The service share was not unusually high in the nineteenth century. Within this service production a very distinct pattern of structural change is evident. Finally, a plea is made for a regional breakdown of the national GDP data in order to obtain a better understanding of the economic growth and modernization process.