Two centuries of economic growth: Norwegian GDP 1816-2020

Abstract

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 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 1816-2019. Secondly, the new estimations suggest revision of the long-run GDP series. Thirdly, this implies it is necessary to revise our understanding of parts of Norwegian economic history.