Overview
One of the great riddles of the post-war period around the economic development of
North America and Western Europe have been how to explain that the growth rate of
the gross domestic product (GDP) of the economies slowed considerably from the 1970s and forwards.
The technological development, a shift from manufacturing economy to one
more service-based, deficiencies in the measurement of GDP (eg in terms of quality measurement), changes in the composition of the labor force, too low investment rates in both private and public activities, etc. All of these explanations have been investigated in different ways in Sweden and some are still subject this active research.
Funding
Results
Results from this type of study vary: Some find a positive relationship between infrastructure and growth while others do not find anything or only one weak relationship. The differences are due inter alia to on which statistical method has been used, what period of study has been studied, what geographical level was investigated and if there have been investigated effects on business production or costs. Studies
Based on cost features are more unambiguous in their conclusions: the costs in
business is lowered by the infrastructure. This indicates that it really exists
productivity enhancing effects. In the long run, there is only increased productivity
which can give rise to growth, so there may be a connection between infrastructure and growth.