Productivity Growth in Norway 1948–2008

Abstract

Up to the 1970s labour productivity in Norway was generally high. Relatively low levels of productivity after the war and the import of technology from abroad were probably important factors. From the mid-1970s until the late 1980s, productivity growth was low and variable, partly due to unstable macroeconomic conditions during this period. Productivity growth picked up again in the early 1990s and accelerated further after the turn of the millennium, due to some extent to increased use of information and communication technology (ICT). Productivity growth slowed again from 2005 and turned negative in 2008. Growth in capital intensity fell, and it has taken time for enterprises to adjust employment to the downturn in the Norwegian economy since 2007.