Lund Papers in Economic History,
Lund University, Department of Economic History

Abstract: Economic history became a discipline with its own chair professors at the Swedish universities at the end of the 1940s. The well-known economic historian Eli Heckscher played a central role for the establishment and his work led to a stronger position for economic history in Sweden than in most other countries. However, his influence was not strong in the formation of the discipline. He always emphasized use of economic theory as essential for the economic-historical methodology. Nevertheless, traditional historical methods became dominating; historians –except for Heckscher –were experts at the appointments of the professors and all candidates were educated in history. Economists were not interested in promoting economic history. Thus, Heckscher’s methodological views did not gain acceptance and a bias towards traditional history came to dominate for a long time. In the 1960s, however, interest in theoretical and quantitative methods increased but then, paradoxically, the inspiration came from the USA and not from Heckscher.

Keywords: ekonomisk historia; nationalekonomi; historia; ekonomisk teori; preceptorat; professur; sakkunniga

JEL-codes: N01

26 pages, February 28, 2019

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