[tored]

Agree, if you examine Swedish modern history since the industrial revolution you will find that Sweden has always produced lots of startups (or the equivalent in the old days) with both low taxes and high taxes, with a welfare state and without.

High taxes and a welfare state do of course have some role to play (positive and/or negative), but as you say there other important parts that probably matter more.

One thing we can say empirically is that Sweden have had it difficult to create large sustainable companies from startups like it did hundred years ago, Spotify is a notable exception.