Return to Parity: The Evolution of Wealth and Income Inequality in Norway, 1912-1929

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the development of wealth and income inequality in Norway from the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 until around 1930, with a particular emphasis on the distributional effects of the monetary policy during these years. The period was characterized by dramatic fluctuations in the Norwegian economy, and has been widely debated among economic historians. Nevertheless, there have only been limited attempts to analyse the distributional impacts of the economic policies in these years, and this thesis aims to fill a hole in this gap in previous research. By estimating Gini coefficients for wealth and income, on both national and regional levels, I find that the development in inequality, at least to some extent, was in line with what previous research has assumed. Inequality rose sharply in the first phase of the First World War, before declining in the aftermath of the war. Inequality then increased gradually throughout the 1920s, and had by 1929 returned to prewar levels