ABSTRACT
History is a core aspect in the analysis of spatial patterns of economic growth. Long-term perspectives lend themselves well to understanding the nature of the regional economic growth process. This chapter analyses the long-run evolution of regional disparities in Sweden over more than 140 years. Jeffrey G. Williamson discussed the development of regional disparities over time using quantitative indicators for several countries and suggested that the long-term evolution of regional disparities followed an inverted U-shape curve, with rising regional inequality during industrialization and decreasing inequality thereafter. There are few empirical descriptions of the regional character of Sweden's industrialization in the longer term, but some previous studies cover certain periods of regional economic conditions. The empirical evidence suggests some distinct tendencies over the last 140 years of spatial economic evolution in Sweden. The first growth regime from 1860 until the Baring crisis of 1890 is clearly an era of increased market integration.
