Editing Economy of Norway (section)

===Social democratic reforms===<!-- This section is linked from [[Social democracy]] -->
After World War II, the [[Norwegian Labour Party]], with [[Einar Gerhardsen]] as prime minister, embarked on a number of social democratic reforms aimed at flattening the income distribution, eliminating poverty, ensuring social services such as retirement, medical care, and disability benefits to all, and putting more of the capital into the public trust.

Highly progressive income taxes, the introduction of value-added tax, and a wide variety of special surcharges and taxes made Norway one of the most heavily taxed economies in the world.  Authorities particularly taxed discretionary spending, levying special taxes on automobiles, tobacco, alcohol, cosmetics, etc.

Norway's long-term social democratic policies, extensive governmental tracking of information, and the homogeneity of its population lent themselves particularly well for economic study, and academic research from Norway proved to make significant contributions to the field of macroeconomics during this era.  When Norway became a petroleum-exporting country, the economic effects came under further study.