A Note on Employment and Gross Domestic Product in Swedish Family-Owned Businesses: A Descriptive Analysis

The Swedish government gathers information that helps identify family-owned businesses and enabled the authors to analyze every business in the economy over a longer period than has heretofore been reported. Using these data, the authors found that family-owned businesses account for up to one fourth of total employment and one fifth of gross domestic product in Sweden. These shares have increased over time due, in part, to economic policy. The authors compare their findings with other studies and suggest how Sweden and other governments might make family firm data more readily available for researchers.