Manufacturing in historical national accounts: when was Norway industrialised? Identifying the time of the Norwegian industrialization using empirical evidence on business cycles and growth theory based on new historical GDP figures (1816-1939)

Abstract

This thesis examines the period when Norway was industrialized using new historical GDP data from 1816 to 1939. Different historians through their research give different periods for when an industrial breakthrough took place. This has led to historians being divided into two different schools of thought for industrialization. Therefore, some historians believe that an industrial breakthrough took place before the 20th century, while others believe after that. At the same time, some also believe that industrialization in Norway took place in waves. Based on the above, it will therefore be interesting to study when Norway was industrialized based on new historical GDP data. In this thesis, different types of literature were used with different purposes to answer the research question. First, literature from previous work was used for various historians. This is because we wanted to observe different views of different historians, but also find support for the choice of variables in the analysis chapter. Furthermore, theoretical aspects are presented with the main purpose to help us uncover an industrial breakthrough. After that, the data and the methodology chapter will be presented. This therefore gave us the opportunity to carry out an analysis, which will be discussed in more detail in another chapter. Our results indicate that there has been several periods of expansion in Norwegian manufacturing, where various industries emerged. There were clear business cycles and growth cycles that could give an indication of industrialization. The labour statistics also shed more light on the fact that growth was largely pre-emptive before the 20th century. Although it became more stable towards the turn of the century. Exports show the same with major changes taking place around 1890. Therefore, the results of our analysis show that industrialization in Norway took place with a decisive breakthrough from 1887 to 1916. This means that the industrial breakthrough in Norway took place at the end of 1880s (before 1900).