Growth in public finances as tool for control : Norwegian development 1850-1950

Abstract

By drawing on information from public accounts from the nineteenth and twentieth century the present paper aims at mapping the development of key financial indicators for the Norwegian central government sector. It concludes that growth in the size of this sector often, but clearly not always, reflects political economy regimes. The paper concludes that persistant growth in public finances as tool for control over the economy did not take place before the introduction of the social-democratic regime in 1935.