Transportation and regional inequality: the impact of railways in the Nordic countries, 1860-1960

Abstract

Before industrialisation the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) were part of Europe's poor periphery, but over the last century these countries have become some of the richest in the world. This article analyses the origins of Nordic growth from the late nineteenth century, focusing on a previously neglected topic: the role of transportation. We argue that transportation, and most notably large investments in railways, played a key role in Nordic industrialisation. Railways made the exploitation and exportation of natural resources possible in what had previously been isolated areas and helped fuel a process of rural-based industrialisation. By creating conditions that favoured migration towards previously scarcely populated, but economically booming areas, Nordic industrialisation was paralleled by a reduction in regional inequality as measured in per capita GDP. We assert that railways were built before local population growth and helped shape the economic landscape of the entire region. We illustrate these points using maps based on Historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) highlighting railways, regional GDP and population densities from the mid nineteenth century until 1960.

We are thankful to participants in the Studying GDP RegionalImbalances for a Better Longterm Analysis of European lntegration seminar for their useful comments and suggestions. We are also thankful to the three anonymous referees and to the editor Miles Ogborn for valuable comments on how to improve the manuscript. Enflo acknowledges financial support from Knut and Alice Wallenberg's Foundation (KAW2014.0138). This research has also been financed by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness (CSO2015-65733-P), ICREA-Academia and the EU (Jean Monnet 586912-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPJMO-PROJECT). The seminars held in Barcelona were financed by the Monnet Studying GDP Regional Imbalances for a Better Long-term Analysis of European integration.