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Reykjavik on the Thames

In: The Icelandic Financial Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Ásgeir Jónsson

    (University of Iceland)

  • Hersir Sigurgeirsson

    (University of Iceland)

Abstract

When Iceland separated from Denmark in 1918 and became a sovereign nation with an independent currency, the people were enthusiastically prepared for nationhood. The economic grounds for the separation were shakier. Iceland depended on a single export industry – fishing – and was thus at the mercy of global market fluctuations. For decades afterwards, the fishing sector remained the national breadwinner. It was a shielded if simple life, but it ended in about 1989 when the North Atlantic cod stock collapsed and the fishing sector teetered on bankruptcy. The economic reforms that followed transformed Iceland from one of the most secluded, state-controlled nations in Western Europe to one of the most liberal and open, and it took just over ten years. These reforms – focused on privatization and corporate tax cuts – reaped great rewards through the 1990s in terms of new growth and prosperity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ásgeir Jónsson & Hersir Sigurgeirsson, 2016. "Reykjavik on the Thames," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: The Icelandic Financial Crisis, chapter 3, pages 67-101, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:pmschp:978-1-137-39455-2_3
    DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-39455-2_3
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