School Troops Resources

The Swedish Schools

sweden.gif (17616 bytes)

Economics was a relative latecomer to Sweden.  The first chairs in economics were established around the turn of the century in the faculties of law of Swedish universities - notably  David Davidson at Upsala (1899),  Knut Wicksell at Lund (1901),  Gustav Steffen at Gothenburg (1903) and Gustav Cassel at the newly-founded University of Stockholm (1904).  In 1909, the Swedish business community founded a separate 'commercial high school' (:"Handelshögskolan") in Stockholm, essentially a self-contained business school or "school of economics". Eli Heckscher held the economics chair at the Stockholm SE from the outset (1909).

The "Stockholm School" proper can be defined as the group of Swedish economists, working in the decade between roughly 1925 and 1940, trying to extend Wicksell's brand of Neoclassical theory from the static to the dynamic, e.g. incorporating anticipatory expectations (Myrdal), intertemporal equilibrium (Lindahl) or disequilibrium sequence economies (Lundberg).  Stockholm school member Ohlin famously challenged Keynes's claim to primacy in macroeconomics in the late 1930s.
 

  

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
 Economics chairs in Sweden (to 1950):
  • Uppsala University
    • (f.1477, establish first economics chair in 1899, second chair 1948)
    • 1st chair (Faculty of Law):
    • 1899 David Davidson (to 1919)
    • 1921 Fritz Brock (to 1941)
    • 1942: Erik Lindahl (to 1958.)
    • 2nd chair (Faculty of Philosophy):
    • 1948: Tord Palander (to 1964)
  • Lund University
    • (f. 1666, establish economics chair in Faculty of Law in 1901)
    • 1901: Knut Wicksell (to 1916)
    • 1919: Emil Sommarin (to 1939)
    • 1939: Erik Lindahl (to 1942)
    • 1943: Johan H. Åkerman (transfer chair from law to philosophy in 1947, until 1961)
  • Gothenburg University
    •   (orig. f. 1891 as "Göteborgs Högskola", raised to university in 1907; establish economics chair in faculty of  philosophy in 1903)
    • 1903: Gustav Steffen (to 1929)
    • 1931: Gustav Åkerman (to 1951)
  • Gothenburg Business School (orig. f. 1923, as :"Göteborgs Handelshögskolan", economics chair from start)
    • 1923: Gunnar Silverstolpe (to 1932)
    • 1932: Erik Lindahl  (to 1939)
    • 1941: Tord Palander (to 1948)
    • 1949: Ivar Sundbom (...)
  • Stockholm University
    •   (orig. f. 1878 as "Stockholms Högskola", raised to degree-granting institution in 1904; establish economics chair in 1904)
    • 1st chair (Faculty of Law): 1904:
    • 1904: Gustav Cassel  (to 1933)
    • 1934: Gunnar Myrdal, (to 1950)
    • 2nd chair (Faculty of Philosophy):
    • 1921: Gösta Bagge (to 1949)
    • 1949: Kjield Philip (to 1951)
    • 3rd chair:
    • 1946: Erik F. Lundberg (to 1965)
    • 1965: Bent Hansen (to 1967)
    • 4th chair:
    • 1947: Ingvar Svennilson (to 1951)
  • Stockholm School of Economics (f. 1909, :"Stockholms Handelshögskolan", economics chair from start)
    • 1st: chair:
    • 1909: Eli Heckscher (until 1929, moved to separate chair in economic history, 1929-1945)
      1929: Bertil Ohlin,  (to 1965)
    • 1965: Erik Lunbderg (to 1974)
    • 2nd chair: 1927: Sven Brisman (to 1946)
    • 1947: Torsten Gårdlund (to 1963)
    • 1964: Assar Lindbeck
    • 3rd chair 1940: Arthur Montgomery (to 1958)
  • [Source: Lars Jonung; see also in Engewell, 2006: p.17]

HET

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Resources on Swedish Economics

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca