Public defence in Economic History: Jens Boberg

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About the dissertation

Growth Imperatives: Historical Perspectives on The Rationality of GDP

The dissertation examines various aspects of how economic growth as a political objective or norm relates to the concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its history. It challenges a popular historical narrative that presents the GDP as an increasingly irrelevant product of a bygone time. The dissertation consists of three parts that address this topic from different perspectives.

Part 1 critically examines the recently popular idea that the GDP was something radically new compared to earlier national income concepts and that the Second World War pushed national income estimation towards neglecting broader welfare concerns.

Part 2 describes historical theories about growth imperatives, i.e. notions of the necessity of continuous growth, and how these relate to ideas about capitalism and the content of national income concepts.

Part 3 examines how Swedish government commissions of inquiry treated growth-related questions before the modern GDP concept, in the 1920s and 30s.

The results point towards a history that is characterized more by continuity and general problems in economic theory than by historical specificity and path dependence.

Respondent

Jens Boberg

Opponent

Professor Lars Magnusson, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University

Grading committee 

Professor Lars Pålsson Syll, Department of Society, Culture and Identity, Malmö University

Professor Jenny Andersson, Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University

Associate Professor Åsa Löfgren, Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg

Chair at the defense 

Associate Professor Svante Prado, Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg

Supervisor

Associate Professor Svante Prado, Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg

Assistant supervisor

Associate Professor Oskar Broberg, Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg