Eivind Merok - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Eivind Merok
Routledge eBooks, Sep 21, 2023
New Directions in Norwegian Maritime History
Høgskolen i Innlandet, 2019
The evolving paths of natural resource-based industries, such as the forest industries, are volat... more The evolving paths of natural resource-based industries, such as the forest industries, are volatile to new technologies and changing markets. The volatilities of a Norwegian forest industrial regime are studied in this paper. Private forest owners and two firms have been the key actors in the regime. Since the 1960s and until the early 2000s, these actors and the relations between them defined a national regime of forest industrial evolution. Financialization among forest owners combined with a strategy of debt financed global expansion within newsprint production at the turn of the century initiated the decline of the regime. Managers did not understand the growth of electronic media, and the consequences this would have on the previously successful business model of global capacity management. Lack of innovation and investments combined with cross border rescaling contributed to national deindustrialization of the forest industries. Norwegian pulpwood has become a precondition for continued Swedish forest industrial expansion. The materiality of logs being the basis for two interdependent industrial paths is highlighted as part of the reason behind this rescaling.
Economics and economic history share many fundamental research problems and have a rich shared in... more Economics and economic history share many fundamental research problems and have a rich shared intellectual history. Still, works by economic historians are rarely read or referenced in economics. In this essay we attempt to identify the cost of this negligence. In particular, we argue that a restrictive understanding of the economic research programme excludes available evidence and precludes analysis of
The World's Key Industry, 2012
The development of maritime history as a specialized field of research is an impressive testament... more The development of maritime history as a specialized field of research is an impressive testament to the founders of the International Maritime Economic History Association.1 Skip Fischer’s own publications, together with his relentless efforts as editor of the International Journal of Maritime History, have contributed significantly to placing seaborne transport at the centre of the international economic history of the nineteenth century. As a result of the collective efforts made in the field since the 1970s, most economists, economic historians and general historians now recognize the pivotal role played by the maritime sector in fostering a truly global economy before World War One (WWI).
International Journal of Maritime History, 2009
The Norwegian merchant fleet expanded dramatically during the second and third quarters of the ni... more The Norwegian merchant fleet expanded dramatically during the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century. Between 1850 and 1880 alone it increased more than five-fold, making it not only the fastest-growing but also the third largest fleet in the world by tonnage." This growth also reflected the increasing orientation by Norwegian shipowners towards international freight markets; by 1875, seventy-eight percent of the fleet's earnings came from the cross-trades. 3 The expansion of the Norwegian fleet was part of a broader change in the maritime sector in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a response to improved access to international shipping markets after the repeal of the British Navigation Acts, fleets from nations such as Canada, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Greece all experienced periods of expansion that were more rapid than the growth of world tonnage as a whole, thus reducing the
The World's Key Industry, 2012
Routledge eBooks, Sep 21, 2023
New Directions in Norwegian Maritime History
Høgskolen i Innlandet, 2019
The evolving paths of natural resource-based industries, such as the forest industries, are volat... more The evolving paths of natural resource-based industries, such as the forest industries, are volatile to new technologies and changing markets. The volatilities of a Norwegian forest industrial regime are studied in this paper. Private forest owners and two firms have been the key actors in the regime. Since the 1960s and until the early 2000s, these actors and the relations between them defined a national regime of forest industrial evolution. Financialization among forest owners combined with a strategy of debt financed global expansion within newsprint production at the turn of the century initiated the decline of the regime. Managers did not understand the growth of electronic media, and the consequences this would have on the previously successful business model of global capacity management. Lack of innovation and investments combined with cross border rescaling contributed to national deindustrialization of the forest industries. Norwegian pulpwood has become a precondition for continued Swedish forest industrial expansion. The materiality of logs being the basis for two interdependent industrial paths is highlighted as part of the reason behind this rescaling.
Economics and economic history share many fundamental research problems and have a rich shared in... more Economics and economic history share many fundamental research problems and have a rich shared intellectual history. Still, works by economic historians are rarely read or referenced in economics. In this essay we attempt to identify the cost of this negligence. In particular, we argue that a restrictive understanding of the economic research programme excludes available evidence and precludes analysis of
The World's Key Industry, 2012
The development of maritime history as a specialized field of research is an impressive testament... more The development of maritime history as a specialized field of research is an impressive testament to the founders of the International Maritime Economic History Association.1 Skip Fischer’s own publications, together with his relentless efforts as editor of the International Journal of Maritime History, have contributed significantly to placing seaborne transport at the centre of the international economic history of the nineteenth century. As a result of the collective efforts made in the field since the 1970s, most economists, economic historians and general historians now recognize the pivotal role played by the maritime sector in fostering a truly global economy before World War One (WWI).
International Journal of Maritime History, 2009
The Norwegian merchant fleet expanded dramatically during the second and third quarters of the ni... more The Norwegian merchant fleet expanded dramatically during the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century. Between 1850 and 1880 alone it increased more than five-fold, making it not only the fastest-growing but also the third largest fleet in the world by tonnage." This growth also reflected the increasing orientation by Norwegian shipowners towards international freight markets; by 1875, seventy-eight percent of the fleet's earnings came from the cross-trades. 3 The expansion of the Norwegian fleet was part of a broader change in the maritime sector in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a response to improved access to international shipping markets after the repeal of the British Navigation Acts, fleets from nations such as Canada, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Greece all experienced periods of expansion that were more rapid than the growth of world tonnage as a whole, thus reducing the
The World's Key Industry, 2012