Thor Berger
Biographic Data
| ID | 309757 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thor Berger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thor |
| FAMILY NAME | Berger |
| SIGNATURE | BERGER T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lund University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7712-4624 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Historical manufacturing census of Sweden: Data description and quality assessment
This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw dat…
Institutional Innovation and the Adoption of New Technologies: The Case of Steam
This paper documents how the advent of the limited liability corporation contributed to the diffusion of steam technology during Sweden's industrialization. Using longitudinal establishment-level data, we show that incorporation sharply raised the probability that industrial establishments adopted steam. Incorporation facilitated technology adoption partly by enabling smaller establishments to expand to a greater scale, where the use of steam bec…
Firm survival and the rise of the factory
This paper uses longitudinal establishment-level data to trace the rise of the factory during Sweden's industrialization between 1864 and 1890. We document a sharp shift from the small artisan shop to the mechanized factory, which can largely be ascribed to differences in survival. Whilst non-mechanized establishments could compete with the factory during early industrialization, a distinct survival advantage of the factory appeared at later stag…
Collaboration and connectivity: Historical evidence from patent records
Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early-20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. Thes…
"Inventors among the "Impoverished Sophisticate
This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to WWI, drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden's industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children's opportunities to become inventors, we show that inventors were dis…
Making a Market: Infrastructure, Integration, and the Rise of Innovation
We exploit exogenous variation arising from the historical rollout of the Swedish railroad network across municipalities to identify the impacts of improved transport infrastructure on innovative activity. A network connection led to a local surge in patenting due to an increased entry and productivity of inventors. As the railroad network expanded, inventors in connected areas began to develop ideas with applications outside the local economy, w…
Social Mobility in Sweden before the Welfare State
We use historical census data to show that Sweden exhibited high levels of intergenerational occupational mobility several decades before the rise of the welfare state. Mobility rates were higher than in other nineteenth- and twentieth-century European countries, closer to those observed in the highly mobile nineteenth-century United States. We leverage mobility variation across Swedish municipalities to shed light on potential determinants: econ…
Industrial automation and intergenerational income mobility in the United States
This article examines how the automation of jobs has shaped spatial patterns of intergenerational income mobility in the United States over the past three decades. Using data on the spread of industrial robots across 722 local labor markets, we find significantly lower rates of upward mobility in areas more exposed to automation. The erosion of mobility chances is rooted in childhood environments and is particularly evident among males growing up…
Trends and Disparities in Subjective Upward Mobility since 1940
Concerns that prospects for upward mobility are fading are common in popular and scientific discourse. The fact that fewer Americans today surpass their parents' economic status than in the past has been invoked to explain trends ranging from the recent spike in drug and alcohol poisonings to the growing appeal of right-wing populism. Using General Social Survey data, the authors ask whether people actually feel that their standard of living is f…
Railroads and Rural Industrialization: Evidence from a Historical Policy Experiment
Elites and the expansion of education in nineteenth-century Sweden
A large literature emphasizes that elite capture of political institutions hampered the spread of mass schooling in the nineteenth and twentieth century. We collect new data on investments in elementary education and the distribution of voting rights for more than 2,000 local governments in nineteenth-century Sweden and document that educational expenditure was higher where the distribution of political power was more unequal. In particular, area…
Adopting a new technology: Potatoes and Population Growth in the Periphery
Sweden's population doubled in size between 1750 and 1850 despite a century of stagnating per capita incomes and real wages, which has led many historians to attribute the population explosion to the introduction of the potato. This article provides the first systematic evidence on the potato's contribution to Swedish living standards and population growth. Potatoes at least doubled output per acre, and welfare ratios that account for potato cons…
Political machinery: Did robots swing the 2016 US presidential election
Technological progress has created prosperity for mankind at large, yet it has always created winners and losers in the labour market. During the days of the British Industrial Revolution a sizeable share of the workforce was left worse off by almost any measure as it lost its jobs to technology. The result was a series of riots against machines. In similar fashion, robots have recently reduced employment and wages in US labour markets. Building …
Places of Persistence: Slavery and the Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States
Intergenerational mobility has remained stable over recent decades in the United States but varies sharply across the country. In this article, I document that areas with more prevalent slavery by the outbreak of the Civil War exhibit substantially less upward mobility today. I find a negative link between prior slavery and contemporary mobility within states, when controlling for a wide range of historical and contemporary factors including inco…
Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden
Industrial renewal in the 21st century: Evidence from US cities
Industrial renewal in the 21st century: evidence from US cities. Regional Studies. Where and why do new industries emerge? Using revisions of official industrial classifications, this paper documents the appearance of new industries in the US economy between 2000 and 2010 stemming directly from technological advances. Examining differences in new industry creation across cities, this paper shows that new industries mainly emerge in human capital …
Geographical location and urbanisation of the Swedish manufacturing industry, 1900–1960: Evidence from a new database
This article introduces a new database, based on official statistics, of regional manufacturing industries in Sweden. We employ this database to examine the distribution of manufacturing activity across Swedish regions and cities, 1900–1960. Over this period we observe an increasing concentration of manufacturing activities, reaching a peak around 1940, across the northern, southern and western parts (NUTS-I areas) of Sweden. Over the same period…
Political machinery: Did robots swing the 2016 US presidential election
Technological progress has created prosperity for mankind at large, yet it has always created winners and losers in the labour market. During the days of the British Industrial Revolution a sizeable share of the workforce was left worse off by almost any measure as it lost its jobs to technology. The result was a series of riots against machines. In similar fashion, robots have recently reduced employment and wages in US labour markets. Building …
Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden
Railroads and Rural Industrialization: Evidence from a Historical Policy Experiment
Trends and Disparities in Subjective Upward Mobility since 1940
Concerns that prospects for upward mobility are fading are common in popular and scientific discourse. The fact that fewer Americans today surpass their parents' economic status than in the past has been invoked to explain trends ranging from the recent spike in drug and alcohol poisonings to the growing appeal of right-wing populism. Using General Social Survey data, the authors ask whether people actually feel that their standard of living is f…
Elites and the expansion of education in nineteenth-century Sweden
A large literature emphasizes that elite capture of political institutions hampered the spread of mass schooling in the nineteenth and twentieth century. We collect new data on investments in elementary education and the distribution of voting rights for more than 2,000 local governments in nineteenth-century Sweden and document that educational expenditure was higher where the distribution of political power was more unequal. In particular, area…
Social Mobility in Sweden before the Welfare State
We use historical census data to show that Sweden exhibited high levels of intergenerational occupational mobility several decades before the rise of the welfare state. Mobility rates were higher than in other nineteenth- and twentieth-century European countries, closer to those observed in the highly mobile nineteenth-century United States. We leverage mobility variation across Swedish municipalities to shed light on potential determinants: econ…
Places of Persistence: Slavery and the Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States
Intergenerational mobility has remained stable over recent decades in the United States but varies sharply across the country. In this article, I document that areas with more prevalent slavery by the outbreak of the Civil War exhibit substantially less upward mobility today. I find a negative link between prior slavery and contemporary mobility within states, when controlling for a wide range of historical and contemporary factors including inco…
Industrial renewal in the 21st century: Evidence from US cities
Industrial renewal in the 21st century: evidence from US cities. Regional Studies. Where and why do new industries emerge? Using revisions of official industrial classifications, this paper documents the appearance of new industries in the US economy between 2000 and 2010 stemming directly from technological advances. Examining differences in new industry creation across cities, this paper shows that new industries mainly emerge in human capital …
Adopting a new technology: Potatoes and Population Growth in the Periphery
Sweden's population doubled in size between 1750 and 1850 despite a century of stagnating per capita incomes and real wages, which has led many historians to attribute the population explosion to the introduction of the potato. This article provides the first systematic evidence on the potato's contribution to Swedish living standards and population growth. Potatoes at least doubled output per acre, and welfare ratios that account for potato cons…
Firm survival and the rise of the factory
This paper uses longitudinal establishment-level data to trace the rise of the factory during Sweden's industrialization between 1864 and 1890. We document a sharp shift from the small artisan shop to the mechanized factory, which can largely be ascribed to differences in survival. Whilst non-mechanized establishments could compete with the factory during early industrialization, a distinct survival advantage of the factory appeared at later stag…
Collaboration and connectivity: Historical evidence from patent records
Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early-20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. Thes…
Geographical location and urbanisation of the Swedish manufacturing industry, 1900–1960: Evidence from a new database
This article introduces a new database, based on official statistics, of regional manufacturing industries in Sweden. We employ this database to examine the distribution of manufacturing activity across Swedish regions and cities, 1900–1960. Over this period we observe an increasing concentration of manufacturing activities, reaching a peak around 1940, across the northern, southern and western parts (NUTS-I areas) of Sweden. Over the same period…
Industrial renewal in the 21st century: Evidence from US cities
Industrial renewal in the 21st century: evidence from US cities. Regional Studies. Where and why do new industries emerge? Using revisions of official industrial classifications, this paper documents the appearance of new industries in the US economy between 2000 and 2010 stemming directly from technological advances. Examining differences in new industry creation across cities, this paper shows that new industries mainly emerge in human capital …
Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden
Political machinery: Did robots swing the 2016 US presidential election
Technological progress has created prosperity for mankind at large, yet it has always created winners and losers in the labour market. During the days of the British Industrial Revolution a sizeable share of the workforce was left worse off by almost any measure as it lost its jobs to technology. The result was a series of riots against machines. In similar fashion, robots have recently reduced employment and wages in US labour markets. Building …
Places of Persistence: Slavery and the Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States
Intergenerational mobility has remained stable over recent decades in the United States but varies sharply across the country. In this article, I document that areas with more prevalent slavery by the outbreak of the Civil War exhibit substantially less upward mobility today. I find a negative link between prior slavery and contemporary mobility within states, when controlling for a wide range of historical and contemporary factors including inco…
Railroads and Rural Industrialization: Evidence from a Historical Policy Experiment
Elites and the expansion of education in nineteenth-century Sweden
A large literature emphasizes that elite capture of political institutions hampered the spread of mass schooling in the nineteenth and twentieth century. We collect new data on investments in elementary education and the distribution of voting rights for more than 2,000 local governments in nineteenth-century Sweden and document that educational expenditure was higher where the distribution of political power was more unequal. In particular, area…
Adopting a new technology: Potatoes and Population Growth in the Periphery
Sweden's population doubled in size between 1750 and 1850 despite a century of stagnating per capita incomes and real wages, which has led many historians to attribute the population explosion to the introduction of the potato. This article provides the first systematic evidence on the potato's contribution to Swedish living standards and population growth. Potatoes at least doubled output per acre, and welfare ratios that account for potato cons…
Trends and Disparities in Subjective Upward Mobility since 1940
Concerns that prospects for upward mobility are fading are common in popular and scientific discourse. The fact that fewer Americans today surpass their parents' economic status than in the past has been invoked to explain trends ranging from the recent spike in drug and alcohol poisonings to the growing appeal of right-wing populism. Using General Social Survey data, the authors ask whether people actually feel that their standard of living is f…
Industrial automation and intergenerational income mobility in the United States
This article examines how the automation of jobs has shaped spatial patterns of intergenerational income mobility in the United States over the past three decades. Using data on the spread of industrial robots across 722 local labor markets, we find significantly lower rates of upward mobility in areas more exposed to automation. The erosion of mobility chances is rooted in childhood environments and is particularly evident among males growing up…
Making a Market: Infrastructure, Integration, and the Rise of Innovation
We exploit exogenous variation arising from the historical rollout of the Swedish railroad network across municipalities to identify the impacts of improved transport infrastructure on innovative activity. A network connection led to a local surge in patenting due to an increased entry and productivity of inventors. As the railroad network expanded, inventors in connected areas began to develop ideas with applications outside the local economy, w…
Social Mobility in Sweden before the Welfare State
We use historical census data to show that Sweden exhibited high levels of intergenerational occupational mobility several decades before the rise of the welfare state. Mobility rates were higher than in other nineteenth- and twentieth-century European countries, closer to those observed in the highly mobile nineteenth-century United States. We leverage mobility variation across Swedish municipalities to shed light on potential determinants: econ…
Collaboration and connectivity: Historical evidence from patent records
Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early-20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. Thes…
"Inventors among the "Impoverished Sophisticate
This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to WWI, drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden's industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children's opportunities to become inventors, we show that inventors were dis…
Institutional Innovation and the Adoption of New Technologies: The Case of Steam
This paper documents how the advent of the limited liability corporation contributed to the diffusion of steam technology during Sweden's industrialization. Using longitudinal establishment-level data, we show that incorporation sharply raised the probability that industrial establishments adopted steam. Incorporation facilitated technology adoption partly by enabling smaller establishments to expand to a greater scale, where the use of steam bec…
Firm survival and the rise of the factory
This paper uses longitudinal establishment-level data to trace the rise of the factory during Sweden's industrialization between 1864 and 1890. We document a sharp shift from the small artisan shop to the mechanized factory, which can largely be ascribed to differences in survival. Whilst non-mechanized establishments could compete with the factory during early industrialization, a distinct survival advantage of the factory appeared at later stag…
Historical manufacturing census of Sweden: Data description and quality assessment
This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw dat…
Economics (13 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Economic geography (8 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Geography (7 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Demographic economics (5 works) · Demography (5 works) · Political science (5 works)