Abstract:
This paper presents empirical evidence of the international integration of Swedish economic historians. Contrary to the claims of a recent national evaluation of the discipline, the Swedish shares of international publications and conference presentations are robustly below available cross-country and cross-discipline benchmarks. Also considering levels of research inputs, the relative underperformance of the Swedish field is alarming. Four main explanations to this situation are forwarded: 1) Being among the largest economic history communities in the world, Sweden has become self-sufficient and almost independent of the international arena. 2) The dominating research language is Swedish. 3) The dominating publication format is monographs (in Swedish). 4) Swedish economic historians are reluctant to use modern economic theories and statistical analysis to complement the traditionally dominant qualitative research methods.
