<p>This licentiate thesis describes the Swedish pornography policy and how this policy affected the pornography industry. The main aim of the study is to survey the development of the Swedish porn industry 1950-2000 and to consider how it was imagined both as an industry, and as a commercialized form of sexuality. The focus is on the relationship between the pornography industry and the state, and to study this relationship, the thesis is divided into three different but related parts.</p><p>The first part concerns the institutional settings with main focus on the abolition of censorship in 1971. The political debates about legalizing pornography are studied in order to ascertain how industry and its actors are conceptualized in this context. It also draws attention to why regulation of the industry was considered necessary in the first place, as well as the how changes in the legislation affected the economic development of the industry itself.</p><p>The second part concerns the Swedish pornographic press. My purpose is to map out all publishing houses that produced pornographic magazines from 1950 to 2000, and to chart some aspects of their economic fortunes. The history of pornography and connections to technological change is also studied in terms of estimating the influence of the video breakthrough on sales figures and market strategies for the publishing houses that had to deal with this development.</p><p>In the third part, I study the regulation in action, i.e. when the publishers of pornographic magazines are prosecuted. I analyze all of the pre-1971 prosecutions – that is, the prosecutions that took place before regulation was removed. Using these records, it is possible to determine how the regulation was implemented, what content was considered harmful, and how that changed over time. This material, that includes the preliminary investigations from the police, also shows how the pornography producers handle the institutional settings to escape responsibilities and punishment.</p><p>In this thesis, I show that the pornography industry in Sweden has a complex and changing relationship to the state. Although pornography is unwanted by politicians during the period, pornography is allowed to publish pictures without any restriction on sexual content in the 1970s. The argument for the deregulation is that censorship is incompatible with a modern democratic and liberal state. Pornography serves as a modern dilemma when the phenomenon is viewed as incompatible with a modern society, conflicting with the goal of gender equality, and when a regulation is seen as incompatible with the idea of basic liberties in a modern democracy.</p><p>When it comes to the industry it shows that, quite unexpected, a lot of companies are run by women or as family businesses. There are no empirical grounds for the claim that pornography is an all male industry then, at least not in the Swedish case. The study also shows that the Swedish pornography industry was well established before the law change.</p>

<p>This licentiate thesis describes the development of the Swedish computer and video game industry. The main focus is on the Swedish game development industry. Little research on the industry has been done and the purpose is to define the companies involved and to create an initial overview of the development of the industry. This overview will later be used as a platform for the doctorial thesis.</p><p>Games are a growing culture form and today a lot of people are playing different types of computer and video games. Internationally the industry has expanded and some of the successful games have generated spectacular revenues. In Sweden the industry has received attention from different actors like universities, government bodies and media. There are today educations that are focused on game development and there are programs which allocates grants towards game companies. The rapid development in the computers technology has had a great impact on the game industry, which is dependent on hardware development to create games.</p><p>The first computer games were made for some of the very first computers in the 1940´s and 1950´s. In the 1970´s a market for games was created when arcade machines and somewhat later home consoles were introduced. The industry has grown and includes today some of the largest companies in the world.</p><p>The Swedish industry follows the international pattern but developed a bit later and the first Swedish game companies were founded in the late 1980´s. The industry has expanded, especially between 1998 and 2002. In 2005 the number of people employed in the industry had increased to over 600. During the period under study the industry seems to have had a constant problem with making a profit. Especially in 2002 and 2003 the industry has had economic problems and some of the lager companies were bankrupt.</p>

<p>This licentiate thesis, with the English title Automobility towards Regional Equality? Studies of the geographical and socioeconomic diffusion of the private automobility in Sweden 1950-2000, has the overall aim to investigate the interaction between the private automobility and the Swedish socio-economical development in general. Firstly, the diffusion of private car ownership in Sweden is mapped both geographically and economically at the national level covering all citizens above the age of 18. Secondly, a comparison with the Norwegian diffusion pattern shows how automobility has interacted with two partly different national contexts. This aim will be dealt with in two articles.</p><p>Since the diffusion of private cars in Sweden has not yet been examined in a long run and national perspective covering all individuals, the first article, Driving from the Centre to the Periphery? The Diffusion of Private Cars in Sweden 1950-2000 with focus on 1960-1975, investigates how the diffusion of private cars followed the over all socio-economic and geographical changes from 1960 to 1975; did changes in car ownership per capita primarily follow changes in incomes or changes in population density (urbanisation)? Swedish traffic and regional policies in the 1960s aimed at making the car an instrument for national integration and regional equality, and make it available throughout the country. In the article the effect of that policy is tested. The analysis is based on Swedish census material that includes all car owners for the years 1960, 1970 and 1975. Our conclusion is that income levels were more important than other explanations to the diffusion of private cars in Sweden between 1960 and 1975.</p><p>Since Norwegian private car density has lagged behind the Swedish and did not reach the same national levels until the late 1980s, despite the same GDP per capita levels, the second article, Two Sides of the same Coin? Private Car Ownership in Sweden and Norway since 1950, compares car diffusion in Norway and Sweden in both historical time and model time in order to find specific explanations for the national and regional patterns of car diffusion. Can both the time lag and the diffusion process be explained with national differences in income, institutions, infrastructure, and population settlements? Or have regional differences in income and population density affected the outcome? Our conclusion is that car diffusion in Norway and Sweden displays two sides of same coin; the national levels converged, but the process did not follow the same regional pattern. Regional differences in income and population density have in general been a significant explanation for car density in Sweden but not in Norway.</p><p>Thus, the licentiate thesis shows how private car ownership in Sweden from the 1950s has interacted with increasing regional equality, especially concerning geographical diffusion.</p>

From 1716 to 1845, the Scottish financial system functioned with no official central bank or lender of last resort, no public (or private) monopoly on currency issuance, no legal reserve requirements, and no formal limits on bank size. In support of previous research on Scottish "free banking," I find that this absence of legal restrictions on Scottish banking contributed to a proliferation of what Adam Smith derisively referred to as "beggarly bankers" which rendered the Scottish financial system both intensely competitive and remarkably resilient to a series of severe adverse shocks to the small developing economy. In particular, despite large speculative capital flows, a fixed exchange rate, and substantial external debt, Scotland's highly decentralized banking sector effectively mitigated the effects of two severe balance of payments crises arising from exogenous political shocks during the Seven Years' War. I further find that the gradual introduction of regulations and legal restrictions into Scottish banking was the result of aggressive political lobbying by the largest Scottish banks, and effectively raised barriers to entry and encouraged banking sector consolidation. I argue that while these results did not cause the severe financial crisis of 1772, they amplified the level of systemic risk in Scottish credit markets and increased the likelihood that portfolio losses in the event of an adverse economic shock would be transmitted to depositors and noteholders through disorderly bank runs, suspensions of payment, and institutional liquidation. Finally, I find that unlimited liability on the part of Scottish bank shareholders attenuated the effects of financial instability on the real economy. The financial crisis of 1772 in Scotland thus offers a valuable historical perspective on issues relating to the political economy of financial regulation, regulatory and intellectual capture, and institutional reform in banking. / History

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91). Also available on the Internet.

AbstractThis thesis examines convergence and increased efficiency in European healthcare systems after 1950 and beyond. The countries that is included in the study are Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The purpose that has been answered is, from an economic-historical perspective, contribute to a higher knowledge to European health care systems historical growth, expansion, and structural reforms, and then to analyze in more depth the period 1950 and forward. The questions that have been answered are how European universal and conservative healthcare systems have developed and if it has been a convergence between different models in recent decades. Another question that has been answered if there are any differences in system efficiency measured as the ability of the different systems to affect healthcare-related mortality.At the beginning of the 20th century, the construction of the European countries healthcare systems began. However, it was not until after World War II that the expansion took place and a therefore even a strong increase of cost as a share of GDP.In Europe, two different healthcare models dominate the Nordic universal model and a social insurance system where Germany is the best example. In the Nordic countries, all citizens were included, and the financing was through the tax. In that model, the state was ultimately the guarantor of the individual’s welfare. In the conservative model, different groups could have different insurance solutions for their welfare.The thesis shows a strong convergence of these two models. The collective tax collective has an increasingly important role in both models. Nowadays, there are no major differences on that point. Today, public funding accounts for about 75–80 percent of the total health care costs in both tax- and insurance-financed systems. On the other hand, there are differences in the fact that the social insurance systems are operated by actors other than the region or state. Social insurance systems also tend to provide more equal care in terms of how care is consumed between different socioeconomic groups. In other respects, system efficiency is similar, even though Sweden probably has a lower system efficiency in terms of the resources used.Keywords: Keywords: Universalism, Social insurance systems, Health care, Health care expenditures and Economic history

The subject of this thesis was chosen from both a professional and an academic interest in the economic development of Oregon. Prompted by proposals made to the Oregon Legislature to initiate various forms of industrial subsidy programs to disperse economic growth and population away from congested areas, this research effort seeks to provide an evaluative analysis of the effectiveness of subsidy techniques in influencing industrial location and stimulating a sustained growth process in less developed areas. Research was undertaken in two primary subjects: 1) theory of regional economic development and the effects of subsidies on the growth process; and 2) empirical evidence of the effectiveness of industrial subsidy programs on regional development in other areas. Information was obtained from the following resources: The author’s library of reference literature on economic development and the bibliographies contained therein; Professional organizations, particularly the library of the American Industrial Development Council, as well as requests for literature from various members of those organizations; University library resources, including: Bureaus of Business Research, Bibliography, 1968-1970; Public Affairs Information Service, 1965-Jan. 3, 1973; Business Periodicals Index, 1965-1972; Journal of Economic Articles, 1967-Dec., 1972; Index to Economic Literature, 1966-1970; U.S. Library of Congress, National Union Catalog, 1960-1972; Council of Planning Librarians, Bibliographies; Colorado University, Public Catalog of Norlin Library holdings; Colorado Technical Reference Center. Using information obtained from these and other sources, a method was obtained for defining and measuring the economic and social welfare objectives of a regional development program in Oregon. Geographical patterns of economic health indicators were mapped for the state This is followed by an analysis of various types of subsidies and their effects on resource allocation and gross output. It was found that wage subsidies offer optimum benefits for labor-surplus areas with less distortion of capital efficiency than do capital or price subsidies. Justification for subsidies was found to be greatest using social benefits as criteria rather than maximization of economic output. The influence of industrial subsidies on location decisions is then examined. Following an analysis of effects of subsidies on the cost structure and profit potential for the firm, financial and tax incentives are separately reviewed in case histories of subsidy programs. It was found that capital investment subsidies have had considerably more location influence than tax subsidies. In any case, however, subsidies were determined to be marginal, rather than decisive, locational factors with more basic economic criteria, such as labor availability and market access, being more influential. Finally, cost/benefit considerations for subsidy programs in Oregon are reviewed. External effects of industrialization on rural economies are considered, and the growth center concept for maximization of economic gain is examined. Fiscal costs for state and local governments are explored for different types of subsidy programs. The conclusion is reached that programs can be devised which minimize fiscal costs while offering maximum potential economic and social benefits.

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This essay presents a case study about the development of income levels in the medical sector during Sweden´s period of modernization, 1890-1920, focusing specifically on the five wage groups which comprised the medical staff at Uppsala´s Ulleråker hospitalum (=mental asylum). This institution, though different in it´s stated mission from hospitals and the like, was similarily organized, and staffed with employees belonging to the same categories as regular hospital staff - they shared similar social backgrounds, education levels, work tasks and conditions. This was thanks to the centralized nature of the Swedish medical sector, which was governed mainly by the Medicinal Board, which in turn was influenced by the government on one side, and influential individuals, schools for medical education and employee organisations/unions on the other. The objective of the essay is to establish a timeline of the wage development, and to identify factors which influenced this development. Furthermore, it seeks to identify differences between genders, wherefore the male orderlies and female nursing aides are given special focus throughout. Although the hospitalum has been the subject of previous books, the financial records have never been used in research before. The essay begins with presenting a history of Swedish societal development - and the simultaneous development of the medical sector - before moving on to establish a timeline of the nominal wage data. Using methodology developed by previous historical wage development research, it then calculates the real wages with the help of a converted consumer price index. It also makes use of a separate, in-depth study to try and showcase differences between genders; primarily, it calculates the share of bonuses of total income and what the maximum earning capacity of the male and female staff was. The essay concludes that the wage development was influenced by multiple factors. Primarily, education level was a crucial factor for the employee in securing higher wages. Not only did it serve as basis for securing higher wages, it also came with the bonus of educational organisations oftentimes aiding their graduates in discussion with prospective employers. Secondarily, collective bargaining (and, from 1904, unions), along with influential members of the national doctor´s corp (who were realizant about the need for better work conditions in order to retain talented employees) allowed the staff to directly influence decisions in the Medicinal Board, and use the conditions at other medical institutions as motivation for implementing improvements. Additionally, larger societal trends also played a part. In particular, the real wages show clearly that the wage development to a great extent followed the trends in cost of living, and obviously the extreme influence of World war I also necessitated extreme adjustments - though, interestingly, these adjustments consisted more of increased bonus payouts that wage increses, perhaps due to bonuses being easier to lower or discontinue after the expensive times were over. In all, education appears to have been the most important factor in securing high wages - other research reveals some wage groups used professionalization to improve their work conditions, to the detriment of lower level wage groups. Since market forces had little impact on the medical sector, due to it not producing marketable goods and services or competing for workers, collective bargaining and larger societal developments became the main influences for less educated staff.