Increase in diversity: Nordic dissertations 2014–2018

This issue of the Scandinavian Economic History Review features a list of dissertations published in the Nordic countries in 2017 and 2018 (Appendix). As in our previous surveys (Ojala, Hemminki & Nevalainen, 2016, 2018), we approached Nordic universities and business schools requesting them to provide full lists of dissertations completed in 2017 and 2018 addressing topics in economic and business history. This time our survey yielded altogether 46 dissertations. As in our previous surveys, the topic of the dissertation (not the department nor the discipline) was used to determine if it was eligible for inclusion to our survey. After compiling the list, we approached the authors requesting a summary of their dissertations. These summaries are included as an Appendix to this text. Unfortunately, we did not receive abstracts from all authors. The Scandinavian Economic History Review webpages provide direct links to all dissertations available on the Internet.

Considering overall our previous and this latest survey, we can say that economic history research is doing well in Nordic countries: no less than 122 dissertations were produced in the period 2014–2018 (Table 1). There is some annual fluctuation in these numbers although overall the number of dissertations has ranged approximately between 20 and 30. Yet there are clear differences between the countries. Sweden is the powerhouse of Nordic economic history research: 57% of dissertations in the period 2014–2018 were produced in Sweden, which produces some 13–15 dissertations per annum. Finland follows Sweden with a 27% share, while Norway and Denmark produce roughly ten per cent each of all dissertations in economic and business history. Lund University is the most productive institution, producing some 22% of all dissertations. The second most productive Swedish university is Uppsala (16%), followed by two Finnish universities: Helsinki (11%), and Jyväskylä (10%).

Table 1. Numbers of dissertations in economic and business history completed in the Nordic countries, 2014–2018.

	Denmark	Finland	Norway	Sweden	Total
2014	2	9	5	15	31
2015	–	4	1	14	19
2016	2	9	2	13	26
2017	1	4	1	14	20
2018	3	7	2	14	26
Total	8	33	11	70	122

Source: Surveys in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

English is the most widely used language in economic history dissertations in the Nordic countries: roughly 60 per cent of dissertations are written in English. However, there are some striking differences between the countries. While almost 90% of the Danish dissertations are written in English, this share is in Sweden a slightly over 70% and in Norway it is 55%. In Finland, however, the share of dissertations written in English is 30% although this share is clearly on the increase in Finland.

If we look at the time periods the dissertations address there are, again, some differences between the countries. In the Finnish case the early modern era (here defined as roughly the time before the 1850s) is clearly prevalent, with a 42% share. In other Nordic countries the bulk of the dissertations are concerned with the industrial era (here defined as lasting from the 1850s to the 1950s). There seems to be a slight trend towards longer time periods: in 2014 roughly one fourth of dissertations still dealt with time periods of 50 years or longer, while this share was 50% in 2018. Moreover, the share of dissertations analysing periods of 100 years or longer has increased from nine per cent (2014) to 24% (2018).

Following our previous surveys and the categorisation introduced by Whaples (1991, 2002) we further divided dissertations into 12¹ partly overlapping categories (Table 2). According to this categorisation the dissertations most typically dealt with topics related to public institutions. These topics are especially popular in Norway and in Finland. Furthermore, business history is still an important topic in Nordic dissertations, although showing some annual fluctuation. Business history is especially topical in dissertations produced in Denmark, Norway and Finland. Welfare has been a fairly constantly important topic in recent years; this topic is especially important in Sweden and shows an increasing trend in Finland. Quite interestingly, growth studies as a whole show a clear declining trend in Nordic dissertations, while there is to some extent and increase in the category ‘others’, thus showing an increase in the diversity of topics in Nordic dissertations.

Table 2. Topics in Nordic dissertations (%).

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Total	N
Public institutions (law, government, and economy)	13	16	17	10	18	15	49
Business, organisations and industry	14	16	12	15	12	14	45
Welfare (standard of living, inequality, minorities, education)	12	13	12	10	12	12	39
Growth, cycles, industrialisation	13	11	8	8	6	10	32
Population (demographty, migration, housing)	9	11	9	8	8	9	31
Labour	5	11	9	6	6	8	25
Trade and transport	6	6	7	6	10	7	23
Technology, investments	7	2	4	13	0	5	17
Primary sources of income (agriculture, use of land)	8	0	1	2	10	5	15
Crises (war, recession)	6	3	4	4	2	4	14
Finance, banking, credit	3	2	5	6	2	4	12
Others (social, culture etc.)	3	10	12	10	14	9	30
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	332

Source: Surveys in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Note: One dissertation can be classified into several categories; therefore the total number of cases is 332, whereas the total number of dissertations is 122.

Notes

1 Previously we used 13 categories. This time, however, we omitted the category ‘Methodology, theory’ as it overlaps in practice with all other categories.

Appendix

Nordic dissertations in economic history 2017–2018

Ahnland, L. (2017). Financialization in Swedish capitalism: Debt, inequality and crisis in Sweden, 1900–2013. Department of Economic History, Stockholm University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-148711

This dissertation contains the first comprehensive dataset on private debt in Sweden in 1900 to 2013. It moreover shows that there is a long-term relationship running from inequality, via private debt, to the risk of financial crisis in Sweden.

Andersson, J. (2018). State capacity and development in Francophone West Africa. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/ee203029-2d85-46d9-81af-bbbc5357b9eb

The thesis demonstrates the rich and diverse histories of modern states in Africa over the long 20th Century by presenting novel data and analysis on taxation and development in four countries in francophone West Africa – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Senegal. The evidence points to significant long-term growth of state capacity and development in the four countries, but also to their historical vulnerability and external dependence.

Aradhya, S. (2018). Diversity of legacy: The experience of immigrants and their descendants in Sweden. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4d48db5f-8ebc-47ad-9b9f-6ceda0cdf5b1

Asmussen, B. (2018). Networks and faces between Copenhagen and Canton, 1730–1840. Copenhagen Business School. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9639

What characterised the merchants of the Danish Asiatic Company in China, which networks did they belong to and how did their affiliations influence the trade? Using Social Network Analysis, prosopography and microhistory, new light is shed on the people actually bridging the cultural distances, highlighting the importance of both formal, family and religious networks in the early modern global trade.

Axelsson Lantz, E. (2018). Naturresurser, sågverksbolag och bönder: konflikter i Västernorrland 1863–1906. Department of Geography and Economic History, University of Umeå. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-151684

Chen, Z. (2018). Getting old in a changing world: Sons, pensions, and the wellbeing of the elderly in contemporary China. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3eaa57cf-cc70-4614-aea5-09a512542bf5

Egedesø, P. J. (2018). Essays in Health and Economic Development. University of Southern Denmark.

This thesis explores some of the causes of the mortality transition. The thesis considers the role of preventive actions, such as information provision, yet demonstrates that not all efforts were successful. The thesis also highlights that the effect of general economic development, via its effect on improved nutrition, was a factor in the mortality transition.

Elwert, A. (2018). Will you intermarry me? Determinants and consequences of immigrant-native intermarriage in contemporary Nordic settings. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/c51d933b-037d-472d-9873-b6e90710d275

Erikson, M. (2018). Krediter i lust och nöd: Skattebönder i Torstuna härad, Västmanlands län, 1770‒1870. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-340390

The dissertation analyses the role of loans and credit for Swedish freeholders 1770–1870. Special attention is paid to the importance of credit for investments in agriculture, the land market and during agricultural crises.

Gary, K. (2018). Work, wages and income: Remuneration and labor patterns in Southern Sweden 1500–1850. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a009e78a-428e-47d5-873b-4f1ad5f7868b

Hansen, K. B. (2017). Crowds and speculation: A study of crowd phenomena in the U.S. financial markets 1890 to 1940. Copenhagen Business School. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9496

This dissertation undertakes an explorative historical analysis of problems associated with crowd phenomena in the U.S. financial markets between 1890 and 1940. While a study of crowd-related problems in the financial markets invariably involves examinations of panics and crises, the dissertation shows that crowds were not exclusively seen as crisis phenomena, but were considered by many financial writers to be of much broader significance to the organisation and functioning of markets.

Hansen, P. B. (2018). Standardarbeidsforholdets vekst og fall? Fagbevegelsens, arbeidsgiveres og myndighetenes respons på bemanningsbyråer i verkstedindustrien og holdninger til fast og midlertidig arbeid i Norge 1947–2000 [The rise and fall of the standard employment relationship? The responses of trade unions, employers and the government to temporary work agencies in the engineering industry and attitudes to permanent and temporary work in Norway 1947–2000]. Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo.

Research on the Standard Employment Relationship, i.e. full-time permanent employment in a bilateral employment relationship, and non-standard employment relationships, is largely carried out by social scientists paying attention to changes in labor markets from the 1990s onwards. This thesis analyzes the changing content of the standard employment relationship as a social and legal norm in Norway in the period from 1947 to 2000. The thesis also discusses how standards for typical employment relationships were established, challenged, and changed.

Halvas Bjerre, J. (2018). Excluding the Jews: The aryanization of Danish-German trade and German Anti- Jewish policy in Denmark 1937–1943. Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies, Copenhagen Business School. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9692

The first part of this dissertation shows that from 1937 National Socialist Germany attempted to Aryanize, remove Jews, from its foreign trade relations in a structured effort headed by the Reichsstelle für den Auβenhandel (RfA). Using Denmark as a case I reveal that race became a decisive criterion in order to trade with Germany, and by September 1942 the German diplomatic leadership in Copenhagen reported that ‘Jewish’ influences had been largely removed from Danish-German trade relations. Based on these findings we need to recognize that in the pre-war period Nazi racial doctrine was an integral part of foreign trade relations and could potentially cause economic losses for Jewish businesses, while governments at large had to respond to racial trade discrimination.

Jansson, M. (2017). Making metal making: Circulation and workshop practices in the Swedish metal trades, 1730–1775. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-320274

Johansson, P. (2017). A silent revolution: The Swedish transition towards Heat Pumps, 1970–2015. School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Stockholm. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-216425

Kochetkova, E. (2017). The Soviet forestry industry in the 1950s and 1960s: A project of modernization and technology transfer from Finland. Department of Economic and Political Studies, University of Helsinki. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-2610-8

This dissertation presents an interdisciplinary study in economic history based on technology transfers from Finland to the Soviet Union cross the Cold War borders. The research is based on a vast array of new historical sources and combines the methodologies of economic, technological, environmental, and socio-cultural histories to explain the roles of natural resources (forests), technology transfers, innovations, and cross-border communications in the planned economy.

Komulainen, A. (2018). Valloittavat osuuskaupat: päivittäistavarakaupan keskittyminen Suomessa 1879–1938 [The great consumer co-ops – the centralization of grocery retailing in Finland 1879–1938]. Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-94-1077-4

Thesis argues that the centralization of grocery retailing in Finland occurred well before 1938. It was primarily caused by the strong consumer co-ops, and the centralization also helped everyday life of consumers.

Kuorelahti, E. (2018). Who wants a cartel? Regulating European timber trade in the nineteen-thirties. Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4480-5

By analysing the role of governments, banks, and the League of Nations, this dissertation explores how politics and diplomacy intertwined in the process of making and maintaining international commodity cartels in the 1930s. It shows that sometimes firms were the least enthusiastic partners in creating cartels.

Lazuka, V. (2017). Defeating disease: Lasting effects of public health and medical breakthroughs between 1880 and 1945 on health and income in Sweden. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1cba7526-042f-43fe-9005-6f6bc8cbf862

Lennard, J. (2018). Economic fluctuations in the United Kingdom, 1750–1938. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/62bd6b25-7662-46d5-9b2c-bbf4d3439364

This dissertation uses new data and novel econometric methods to identify the causes of fluctuations in the British economy between 1750 and 1938. Modern drivers of the business cycle, such as shocks to regions, monetary policy, uncertainty and banking crises, were also important perturbations between the Industrial Revolution and the Second World War.

Lewén, A. (2017). Resfeber: Berättelser från semesterns barndom 1938−1959. Department of Economic History, University of Stockholm. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-146885

Lundström, M. (2017). The making of resistance: Brazil’s landless movement and narrative enactment. Department of Economic History, University of Stockholm. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-136165

This dissertation advances the economic-historical focus on social movement formation. Empirically combining quantitative corpus analyses, meta-analysis of academic literature, and ethnographic field studies, the study demonstrates how a Brazilian history from below produces a vibrant narrative that enables participants of Brazil’s Landless Movement to take part in its continuity. By documenting that narrative enactment, the dissertation acknowledges the dynamics of a social movement historiography in the making.

Matilainen, R. (2017). Production and consumption of recreational gambling in twentieth-century Finland. Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-3282-6

The history of Finnish gambling from the 19th century to the 21st century can be formulated into three dispositifs: prohibition dispositif, common good dispositif, and risk dispositif. The research offers new insights into the role of state-governed (gambling) monopolies for economic historians.

Molinder, J. (2017). Interregional migration, wages and labor market policy: Essays on the Swedish model in the postwar period. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324443

The role of the Swedish model in underpinning the structural changes of the 1950s and 1960s has been widely debated. The dissertation uses new data to re-evaluate the drivers of economic change during the period and shows that features such as the solidaristic wage policy and the mobility-oriented labor market policies played less of a role than previously thought.

Mäntylä, M. (2018). Kartanot ja kaupunki: Lähiympäristön suurtilojen suhde Tampereen kaupunkiin 1890–1930 [Manor Estates and the towns: The large farms near tampere and their connections to Tampere 1890–1930]. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-94-0764-4

The study shows the diverse influence of large-scale landowners as part of urban governance: they used power and also negotiated how power was used in the town. The manor estates were economically more a part of urban society than of the rural society in which they were located.

Möttönen, T. (2017). Kasvun tekijät: Tutkimus Suomen teollistumisen ajan perustajayrittäjistä 1870–1990 [Growth makers: The founder entrepreneurs in Finland from 1870 to 1990]. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7017-8

The dissertation examines highly successful company founders in Finland from 1870 to 1990. The thesis sheds new light on entrepreneurship and the development of the Finnish economy and Finnish society, and participates in the debate about entrepreneurship from the perspective of business history.

Nielsen, H. (2017). Coal, commerce and communism: Empirical studies on energy history in the Czech Republic. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/9c488ad2-4bcd-4846-902b-d4ab7615f482

This thesis employs an international comparative perspective to empirically analyse the Czech energy transition between 1830 and 2010. It addresses the utilization of energy in shaping modern economic growth through structural and technological change and the implications of those changes for specialization and foreign trade. New historical data is collected and utilized to investigate the impact of changing institutional settings on energy and economic growth.

Pasay, S. L. (2017). Stable media in the age of revolutions: Depictions of economic matters in British and Swedish state newspapers, 1770–1820. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-312465

This dissertation examines how economic matters were depicted between 1770 and 1820 in two European kingdoms: Britain and Sweden. State newspapers, a form of stable media, are investigated to understand how economic matters were expressed during an age of revolutions, a new approach to understanding the economy from an historical perspective. The results show how early modern economic matters can be viewed beyond a quantitative context with increasing abstractness, separation and emphasis as part of the state’s attempts to inform and manage the loyalty of populations.

Sabo, J. (2017). Reglerad sprängkraft: dynamiten, staten och den svenska civila sprängmedelsindustrin 1858–1950 [A regulated explosive force: Dynamite, the Government and the Swedish civilian explosives industry 1858–1950]. University of Umeå. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-141078

The study analyses the major decision-making processes of the Swedish civilian explosives industry during the period 1858–1950. The dissertation provides knowledge about how societýs regulation of different industries has evolved and how state and private actors have acted in the development of new regulations.

Sahari, A. (2018). Valtio ja suurteollisuuden synty: Laivanrakennusteollisuuden kehittyminen yhteiskunnallisissa teknopoliittisissa järjestelmissä Suomessa 1918–1954 [The state and the making of big industry: The development of the shipbuilding industry within the societal, technopolitical systems in Finland, 1918–1954]. Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4615-1

The thesis re-examines the role of the state in developing maritime technology and industrial capacity. It provides a new meso-level technopolitical interpretation of Finnish war reparations to USSR (1944–1952) through the critique of micro-business and macro-economic history.

Seppälä, J. (2018). Institutional perspectives on retailing: Rethinking the adoption of large-scale retailing in Finland. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7473-2

Besides offering a new perspective on Finnish retail history, the dissertation contributes to the emerging field of management and organizational history. In particular, the study advances the theoretical understanding of institutions within the neo-institutionalist view of organization studies.

Solbakken, E. T. (2018). The wealth of a young nation: On voting rights, financing plights, and long-run wealth inequality in Norway. Department of Economics, University of Oslo. Retrieved from http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-67683

This dissertation studies Norway’s economic transformation from independence from Denmark in 1814 and onwards, by analyzing the presence of favoritism in the newly founded government, the impact of suffrage expansions on public good provision, and by constructing a comparable series on the distribution of wealth for the 20th century. Taken together, it provides novel evidence on the development of Norwegian institutions and the development in inequality.

Sundelin, A. (2018). Expensive living and costly entertainment: Britons as aspiring consumers in Jamaica c. 1750–1810. Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Åbo Akademi. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-765-908-6

This study examines how the colonists in Jamaica tried to lead a fashionable lifestyle. By focusing on the white inhabitants of the island as consumers, rather than slave-owners or traders, this thesis contributes to research within the history of consumption.

Sztern, S. (2017). Russia on the move: the railroads and the exodus from compulsory collectivism 1861–1914. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3a2225d9-5244-4883-9b83-1b43f58da694

The measurable impact of railroads on Russia’s pre-Revolution modernization including the peasantry’s transition to rationalism and individualism, transforming the landholding system, cannot be overestimated. I anticipate a novelty-laden disputation with Prof. Robert Fogel.

Söderbaum, H. (2018). From Oligarch to Benefactor? Legitimation strategies among the wealthy elite in Post-Soviet Ukraine. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-355296

This thesis explores how wealthy actors in post-Soviet Ukraine seek to legitimize their extraordinary positions in society through elite giving and media strategies. The thesis develops an analytical tool inspired by a plurality of disciplines. The analysis sheds light on the agency of individual actors in relation to oligarchy as a social system, moreover, it contributes to the understanding of the role of elite giving in transition economies as well as in social change movements.

Söderhäll, M. (2018). Planering och placering: Den modernistiska stadsplaneringen och restaurangnäringens geografi i Stockholm 1930–2017. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-360292

The dissertation discusses the effects of modernist planning of the location of urban restaurants in Stockholm. The main finding is that the effect was non-trivial and heterogeneous across different parts of the city.

Tegunimataka, A. (2017). Trajectories of integration: Naturalization, intermarriage and education in Denmark, 1980–2015. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cc303c2e-deb6-4ff0-9170-6245967ce50b

Thavenius, R. (2017). Elektrotekniska industrins ledande tråd: AB Dahréntråd och svensk lindningstrådsindustri 1945–1980. Department of Economy and Society, Gothenburg University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2077/51757

This dissertation is a study of Swedish manufacturers of insulated winding wire and the market forces surrounding the industry between 1945 and 1980. It shows how a small family owned company with an entrepreneurial and patriarchal leadership style and the family’s tendency to re-invest profits became an important foundation for the company’s autonomy and expansion until its acquisition by the ASEA in 1973.

Theodoridis, D. (2018). Development constrained – Essays on land as a factor in nineteenth-century industrialization and trade. Department of Economy and Society, Gothenburg University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2077/55302

This dissertation investigates the material circumstances that underpinned industrialization throughout the nineteenth century. Through a series of four research essays, it examines the changing role of natural resources, and specifically that of land, for economic development during the era of the first industrialization.

Toivanen, T. (2018). Pohjoinen polku kapitalismin ympäristöhistoriaan: Tervakapitalismi, yhteisvauraus ja sosioekologinen mullistus 1800-luvun Kainuussa [A Northern path to an environmental history of capitalism: Tar capitalism, the commons and socio-ecological turmoil in nineteenth-century Kainuu]. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-51-3354-0

The dissertation combines elements from economic, social and environmental history and researches why and how an historically specific formation of social power, tar capitalism, expanded and took root in nineteenth-century northern Finland in the region known as Kainuu. The study uses the findings from historical research on the transformation in Kainuu’s sources of livelihood, social relations and conceptions of nature to reinterpret the theoretical discussions on the origins and development of capitalism and develops a research perspective called an environmental history of capitalism.

Turunen, R. (2017). Velka, vararikko ja tuomio: konkurssi ja sen merkitykset 1800-luvun suomalaisissa kaupungeissa [Debt, financial ruin and judgement: Bankruptcy and what it meant in Finnish cities in the nineteenth century]. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7256-1

This study is the first analysis of the reasons, consequences and meanings of economic misfortune in 19th-century Finland. It gives a useful basis for further studies contemplating the prerequisites of 19th-century business life.

Uppenberg, C. (2018). I husbondens bröd och arbete: kön, makt och kontrakt i det svenska tjänstefolkssystemet 1730–1860 [Servants and masters. Gender, contract, and power relations in the servant institution in Sweden, 1730–1860]. Department of Economy and Society, University of Gothenburg. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2077/55921

By studying power relations among masters and servants during the agrarian revolution in Sweden, this thesis shows that the servant position underwent a discursive feminization, and those aspects point to a situation where the servant position became feminized and wage labour became a new power base for men. This leads to the conclusion that servants were already regarded less as family members and more as part of modern labour relations during the agrarian revolution.

Widmalm, H. (2018). Exploring the mores of mining: The economy of the Great Copper Mine, 1716–1724. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-358178

Wiell, K. (2018). Bad mot Lort och Sjukdom: Den privathygieniska utvecklingen i Sverige 1880–1949. Department of Economic History, Uppsala University. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-360875

This thesis explores and presents conclusions on the background, motives, changes, and arguments of personal hygiene in the early 19th and 20th centuries in Sweden, where solutions based on Finnish experiences as well as Anglo-Saxon and western European knowledge where applied. The contribution of this thesis is how economics can be affected by health as well as how new knowledge together with a strong belief can change a social norm and the behaviour of a whole nation.

Zanon, J. (2017). The ‘sleeping beauties’ of Haute Couture: Jean Patou, Elsa Schiaparelli, Madeleine Vionnet. Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo.

This thesis investigates the history of the so-called ‘sleeping beauties’ of haute couture, that is, Parisian haute couture brands that, once world-renowned but long dormant, have been rediscovered and reintroduced as brands in the contemporary market. A sleeping beauty’s aim is to recover a cultural asset from a prestigious past in order to use it in the future. The dissertation contributes to the business history of fashion, providing new insights on business failure, as well as brand revival processes, including entrepreneurial profiles and strategic uses of the past in both production and storytelling.

Zheng, Y. (2017). How immigrants invent: Evidence from Sweden. Department of Economic History, Lund University. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/79fbfd03-608d-4077-9c56-5ddfd768332d

This thesis investigates the inventive performance of immigrants in Sweden based on a special database which links inventors to the general population of the country from 1985 to 2007. It contributes to show that the inventive performance of immigrants is influenced by immigrants’ age at migration, region of origin, educational level, match between education and occupation and migration policy.