This article is a critical review of the picture drawn by Arild Sæther and Ib Eriksen (2014) of the economic policy and development of postwar Norway and of the influence exerted by Ragnar Frisch. Regarding the postwar economy the present article draws on a number of comprehensive studies by...

In the story of Norwegian economics, and of Norwegian economic policy and performance during the postwar years, a central place must be given to Ragnar Frisch (1895–1973). In 1969 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in economics, together with Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994). In our view, the...

Professor Olav Bjerkholt has provided a spirited critique of our 2014 article titled “Ragnar Frisch and the Postwar Norwegian Economy.” Here we reply briefly, noting that many of the quotations he provides actually support our interpretation, that it is naïve of him to play the ideology...

Moral narratives have a substantive effect on the research conclusions of economists. This is one of the findings from a recent survey of economists that we conducted, which found a relationship between views on empirical economic propositions and moral judgments. This finding may help to answer...

The neoclassical problem of distortionary taxation and the Hayekian knowledge problem are two different lines of argumentation against government interventions. When it applies, the Hayekian argument against government intervention is stronger than the neoclassical argument, because...

Mainstream academic economists fall disproportionately into two opposing groups. In one of these groups, the members see free markets as tending to fail relative to formal theoretical conditions for optimality. In the other group, the members see free markets as tending to work better than any...

It is not fruitful to puzzle over the question whether economists and others ‘favor’ or ‘lean’ toward the regulatory or welfare state; that is an unhelpful and confusing question, one that orients people in the wrong way. It is better to begin by emphasizing that the first should be...

This essay takes issue with the idea that liberals are necessarily enamored with either regulation or large government programs. It argues that regulations to protect workers and consumers become necessary in a context where the rules have been written to disadvantage them. Different rules can...

This paper argues that the welfare state and regulation are not inevitably in harmony. In the post-Keynesian period of ‘austerity,’ the tendency is for state regulation to focus more on supporting market-creating activities of capital than of market-controlling features that would protect...

Economists view activist government policy and social insurance as potentially protecting individuals from risks and from market failure. Perhaps differences among economists in support for activist government policy in social insurance and regulation reflect differences in beliefs about the...