Björn Hasselgren

Forskning

My research is directed to two main areas:

- transport infrastructure systems; growth since the 1850s, financing, organization, the development over time of the public/private divide

My 2013 dissertation dealt with these issues: Government's Role for Transport Infrastructure.

I will work on a book project for Palgrave McMillan during 2017 in the field of transport infrastructure history: Transport Infrastructure: In Time, Scale and Scope. The book was published in 2018.

During 2018 a new project has been initiated. It covers the 19th Century major Swedish transport infrastructure project Göta kanal. A first paper has been produced outlining the planning, financing and construction of the canal. It was presented at the World Economic History Conference in 2018, the Economic History Department and various other research conferences during 2018 - 2023. A book at Palgrave Macmillan was published in November 2023; An Institutional Approach to the Göta kanal: A Nineteenth-Century Infrastructure Mega-Project.

As part of the research on Göta kanal a specific study on one of the major iron industries in the regions where the canal passes was done, concerning Stjernsund Castle in the region of Närke. A report was published in 2023: Stjernsunds slott i Närke och Göta kanal: Samband och växelvis samverkan.

- history of economic thought with a focus on the 18th and 19th centuries; concepts in relation to the classical liberal tradition and to transport infrastructure

A specific research interest is the writings of Erik Gustaf Geijer. His historical, economic and social research covers a time period when many of the concepts in economic theory were developed. A project where some of Geijer's main texts were translated to English was finalised in 2017. A book was published in 2017.