Economic Growth and Purchasing Power Parities in the Nordic Countries 1830-1910

• Main Author: Ola Honningdal Grytten
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.197.4545; http://www.nhh.no/sam/res-publ/2003/13.pdf

Discussion Paper 13/2003 The present paper examines new estimates of GDP for the five Nordic countries 1830-1910 in terms of economic growth and purchasing power parities. It concludes that significant economic growth took place during the period. The long-run growth was surprisingly even. However, up to the 1870s this growth was strongest in Norway. From then on Sweden had fastest growth, when Norway experienced relative decline. PPP calculations of GDPs show that Denmark was best off of Nordic countries in the entire period. Norway was number two to the end of the nineteenth century, and then over taken by Sweden in the early 1900s. Finland and Iceland obtained similar levels 1870-1910. Historical national accounts During the last decades Scandinavian economic historians have been in the forefront in constructing historical national accounts (HNA). Olle Krantz pioneered a Nordic project in 1994. The aim was to reach at common standards for the construction and presentation of HNA for the Nordic countries. By adopting common standards one will be able to carry out both cross-country and cross-period comparisons. The Finnish historical national accounts, constructed by Riitta Hjerppe, in many ways served as a standard for the other Nordic countries (Hjerppe 1989). By adopting modern standards with historical alterations the standards for the Nordic Historical National Accounts (NHNA) are closely related to the United Nations System of National Accounts from 1993 (SNA 93) and the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA 95) established by the Commission of the European Union and Eurostat. As result of the ongoing Nordic project, new series of HNA for the Nordic countries have been published. Gudmundur Jonsson has constructed a HNA for Iceland (HNI)