John Maynard Keynes’ Influence in Norway

The purpose of this article is to outline how John Maynard Keynes with his writings and participation in economic debates has influenced Norwegian economics from the 1920s until today. The Norwegian economy was hard hit by the depression after WWI. The crisis was strengthened by the reintroduction of the gold standard. John Maynard Keynes fight against the auri sacra fames (the accursed lust for gold), caught the attention of Norwegian economists. His nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize after his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace made him known in Norway. Ole Colbjørnsen followed Keynes’ participation in the economic debate in Britain in the late 1920s and beginning of the 1930s. As a financial journalist in the newspaper Arbeiderbladet, he brought Keynes ideas to Norway. These ideas were integrated in the Labor Party’s three-year plan, however, forgotten when the first Labor government took office in 1935. In 1938 Keynes was created Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Oslo. When a new study program in economics was introduced at the university, Keynesian economic models were essential in the curriculum. It can be questioned to what degree Keynesian economics was a part of the planned economy that characterized Norway in the first 30 years after WWII. In the 1980s the planned economy was abandoned and a market economy was reintroduced. At the same time, Keynes and Keynesian macroeconomics continued to have a distinctive place in Norwegian textbooks. During the banking crisis 1987–1992, the financial crisis 2008–2011, and the corona crisis 2019–2022 Keynesian economics played a significant role. Norwegian economists believe that Keynes will continue to play an important role in economic theory and policy.