People and their incomes in Norway, 1859-2013

The aim of this project has been to study the distributions of income and wealth based on available historic data. The data sources comprise individual tax assessments from 1789, 1802 og 1816, income and wealth tax tabulations from the 19th and 20th century and detailed registerdata in modern times. Over this period, Norwegian society went through dramatic changes. To get a better basis for describing and analysing the changes in the level and distribution of economic well-being in Norway we have employed various sources such as income tabulations published by Statistics Norway, parliamentary reports and digitized individual census data. For the period from 1960 onwards, we have also used information from modern administrative registries. The compilation of data has in itself been an important contribution to research on the evolution of the income distribution over time. We have compared the evolution of income and wealth inequality to other countries such as Sweden, Denmark and the US. We have considered five sub-projects. First, we introduced and applied appropriate methods for analysing tabulated data. Second, we have explored how information on income inequality can improve our understanding of the evolution of aggregate welfare. Third, we have studied regional changes in income level and income inequality. Fourth, we have collected data on and analysed the evolution of wealth inequality. Fifth, we have used historical micro data to study the development of social mobility over time.

The aim of this project is to study the Norwegian people and their incomes based on a thorough analysis of the available data, from the earliest tabulations of 1859 through to modern times. At the heart of our project is the focus on household well-being. We will expend considerable effort constructing consistent series of income levels and income inequality in Norway, both for the country as a whole and for separate regions. In the first subproject, we will describe and explain the evolution of income i nequality in Norway from 1859 to 2013, both for the country as a whole and for rural and urban regions separately. In the second project, a methodology for the evaluation of well-being over time will be developed, and used to compare the growth path of No rway and other countries before and after the necessary distributional adjustment. In the third part of the project, we will utilize municipality-level information on growth and inequality to evaluate existing theories of economic growth. In the fourth, we will examine the role of wealth and inheritance for the evolution of inequality. Finally, in the fifth part, we will study mobility and how it alters the conclusions from the prevailing cross-sectional approach to long-run inequality. As part of the pr oject, we will set up a web site making available the unified Norwegian data series. We will also pay special attention to international comparisons, evaluating Norway's development path in comparison to other countries.