Can the economic growth of interwar Latvia be estimated by contemporary national accounts?

Ola Grytten, Zenonas Norkus (), Jurgita Markevičiūtė and Jānis Šiliņš
Additional contact information
Ola Grytten: Department of Economics, NHH Norwegian School of Economics Bergen, Norway
Zenonas Norkus: Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Vilnius University, Vilnius- Lithuania
Jurgita Markevičiūtė: Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Vilnius University, Vilnius- Lithuania
Jānis Šiliņš: Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Valmiera, Latvia

Baltic Journal of Economics, 2022, vol. 22, issue 2, 90-109

Abstract: The paper provides an examination of interwar Latvia’s national accounts, checking their usability for estimating interwar economic growth performance. According to the authoritative account of Roses and Wolf [(2010). Aggregate growth, 1913–1950. In S. Broadberry, & K. H. O’Rourke (Eds.), The Cambridge economic history of modern Europe, vol 2. 1870 to the present (pp. 183–207). Cambridge UP.], based on indirect estimation methods, Latvia’s GDPpc growth rate from 1929 to 1938 was the highest in Europe. However, according to Aizsilnieks [(1968). Latvijas saimniecības vēsture, 1914–1945. Daugava.] interwar national income estimates show that the Latvian economy stagnated in the 1930s. This paper’s main findings are that applying historical price indices to the existing interwar output estimates supports the stagnation thesis. However, the national income estimates lack validity and reliability due to unpersistent or unknown methodology. Hence, changes in real output cannot be established without new calculations according to the contemporary System of National Accounts (SNA 2008) framework.

Keywords: National accounting; national income; economic growth of interwar Latvia; Alfreds Ceichners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 N14 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/1406099X.2022.2097370 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bic:journl:v:22:y:2022:i:2:p:90-109

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Baltic Journal of Economics from Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anna Zasova ().