During World War I ocean freight rates rose to extraordinary levels. Using a new monthly dataset it is shown that freight rates can be well explained by economic activity, commodity prices, war risk and world tonnage in the period 1912 to 1916. In the first two years of the war part of the...

This manuscript presents a new combined annual cost of living and consumer price index for Norway covering the period 1492-2017. When previous Norwegian historical consumer price indices partly were constructed on the basis of very limited data, the new historical index is constructed on a...

The present paper discusses Norway's way to prosperity during the two last centuries. The main reason for its wealth seems to have been the ability to meet international demand by utilizing its rich natural resources, adopting efficient technology, and draw on a skilled labor force in order to...

This paper reviews some methodological and practical problems encountered in the construction of historical price indices. The underlying data sets in such studies are often characterized by heterogenous and incomplete price series. It is shown that by using the repeat sales method for...

The present paper offers new knowledge of historical national accounting in Norway in several ways. Firstly, a new and novel set of annual gross domestic product series by industry are presented for the period 1830‐1930. Secondly, the new estimates suggest revision of the historical national...

New monthly freight rate indices for 13 coal trade routes from Britain 1919-1939 are presented. The new indices form the basis of a review of the interwar freight markets and their relationship to the timing and severity of general business cycles. New time series of laid-up tonnage provide the...

Existing historical GDP series for Norway do not always coincide with our historical knowledge of the economic development. This is to a large extent a result of lack of calculations from the production side and in addition to insufficient data sets upon which these series rest. The present...

The present paper seeks to explain how ethics and values in public policy can be result of different historical contingencies. Specifically, it explains the accomplishment of petroleum resource management in Norway. The main argument is that the success of this policy is an understanding of the...