A reply to Olav Bjerkholt on the postwar Norwegian economy

Abstract

Professor Olav Bjerkholt has provided a spirited critique of our 2014 article titled “Ragnar Frisch and the Postwar Norwegian Economy.” Here we reply briefly, noting that many of the quotations he provides actually support our interpretation, that it is naïve of him to play the ideology card, and that he offers no response whatsoever to our central point: that Norway’s postwar growth rates have to be understood in light of the country’s exceptionally high investment ratios, which meant that Norwegian consumers were consuming less in order to sustain those growth rates.