Sustainability in the making? A historical estimate of Swedish sustainable and unsustainable development 1850-2000

In this article we estimate the long-run development of genuine savings in Sweden during the period 1850 to 2000. By doing so we are able to present a first analysis of long-run sustainable development during a single country's transition to modern economic growth rates and high income levels. We find that genuine savings may have been negative up until c. 1910. This suggests a period of transition to positive genuine savings in conjunction with or even preceding the transition to modern economic rates. Important contributions to the transition were increasing investments in human capital, improved sanitary conditions, reduced depletion of forests and accelerated investments in machinery and infrastructure.