Lund University Macroeconomic and Demographic Database
VARIABLE NAME: Chemicals Industry (Price Index 1910/12 = 100)
EKH SERIES: (do not fill in)
AREA COVERED: Sweden
UNITS: Index (1910/12 = 100)
COVERAGE: ANNUAL
RANGE: 1888-1969
ADJUSTMENT: NONE
SOURCE: Ljungberg, J., Prices and Market Processes in Sweden 1885–1969 [Priser och marknadskrafter i Sverige 1885–1969] Lund, 1990.
NOTES: The price indexes were originally published in Jonas Ljungberg, Priser och marknadskrafter i Sverige 1885-1969. En prishistorisk studie [Prices and market processes in Sweden, 1885-1969. A study in price history], Lund 1990. They are organized in branches according to the system in the Swedish historical national accounts, which means, for example, that mining is included with the metal working industry in manufacturing.
The indexes are based on the price series for single commodities that are also published in Ljungberg 1990. The price indexes for manufactures are weighted on the basis of production values in the official statistics (BiSOS/SOS, Industri), while for the agricultural sector production values were compiled and estimated from various sources. Concerning the representativity of the price indexes, it can be measured in the following way: The sum of production values of commodity groups (lowest level in statistics of manufacturing), which are represented by at least one price series, divided by total production value of manufacturing. This share is above 70 percent up to the early 1920s, whereafter the share declines to about 50 percent in the 1960s. Metal and mining industry, with its diversified production, had a representativity of about 50 percent in the early 20th century and it declined to below 40 percent in the 1960s.
The price indexes are computed according to Paasche’s formula, that is, weights are actual volumes for each year. They are computed for four periods, 1888-1911, 1910-30, 1929-54, and 1953-69, each period with the base in first three years, and linked together in the final year with 1910/12=100. The aim with this construction is to take account of the changing composition of production through annual weights of Paasche type, and of greater technological change through the introduction of new commodities in the basket of weights for each of the sub-periods. Quality change of the single commodities is particularly considered, for example, through the splicing of price series for different versions of a commodity according to the relative prices in a common year of observation.
The price data was collected from diverse sources for the period up to 1935. Business records, price lists and catalogues were used and, to some extent, already printed price statistics. From 1920 these sources were completed with the primary material of the official wholesale price index. In 1935 this index was greatly improved and could, with its more than 500 price series, be used as the main source for the price data. In 1949 it was further improved and included more than 700 price series. A large part of these price series are documented in Ljungberg 1990.