Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: The pioneers of Swedish economics at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century were to a large extent influenced by German ideas and German academic life. They went to Germany to study, and their scientific works were usually written in German or Swedish. During the 20th century the use of foreign language changed in favour of English. A similar transition from German to English can be found concerning the predominant language of foreign economics books acquired by Swedish university libraries, the language of doctoral theses in economics, and the language of works quoted in those theses. At the same time the position of the Swedish language declined. We discuss World War I, the German historical school, the Nazi period and World War II, the diminishing significance of geographical distance, and American demographic and academic growth as factors contributing to the transition from German to American influence, which had linguistic consequences.

Keywords: language; German; English; Swedish; influence; doctoral theses

JEL-codes: A14; A23; B10; Z00

11 pages, December 2, 2010

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