My shortest CV may be found here.
This is a short summary of my academic history (per 1999) :
Arno Mong Daastøl is educated as an MA in economics (only) at the Universities of Bergen and of Oslo (1992). In Oslo (1984), he also achieved a BA in philosophy (of science), sociology (of work and industrial relations), and social anthropology (especially on Africa). The theme of his Master Thesis (some 300 pages) was on the image of Man supporting economic policy. Focus was on the links between the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of economics on the one hand and practical economic policy on the other hand. The thesis contrasted the British Liberalist School of the 19th Century, on the one hand, and on the other hand the relatively modern Mercantilist school of the late 19th Century, the British Historical School of Economics and in particular the so-called German (Ethical-) Historical School. Philosophically speaking, the liberalist school was seen as belonging to the materialist and positivist tradition and especially the German mercantilist school w as seen as belonging to a more idealist- and hermeneutically oriented tradition.
Since 1994 he has been working on a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. The theme is the Idealist Renaissance and Mercantilist Tradition of Economics , also called Economic Nationalism or - Continentalism, with the industrialisation of South Africa, around the turn of the 20th Century, as the practical case study. Focus is especially on transportation and customs unification. The theme is the economic principles of the Idealist Renaissance and Mercantilist Tradition of Economics, also called Economic Nationalism or Continentalism. The practical case study is the industrialisation of South Africa, around the turn of the 19 century. Focus is on public goods production understood as production of the tightly related fields of knowledge and communication. In the history of South Africa these themes stand out as related to transportation and customs unification, on the one hand. On the other hand these fields stand out as related to customs protection, i.e. regulated trade. Common to these themes are the problems of economic integration. The first chapter is focused on an extraction of the theoretical principles of the historical tradition mentioned in essence from times immemorial. The second chapter is focused on the impact this tradition had on the development of the regions in today's South Africa. In particular, the Boer strategy in the period 1880-1914 will be studied, as well as the influence of the tradition itself and the practice of the Boers, on local and indirectly on global British economic policy during the period 1880-1914.
He has published articles on themes like: Friedrich List's influence in the Netherlands with focus on transportation and customs policy (Schäfer & Poeschel, 1996); on the Idealist Renaissance and Mercantilist tradition of economics (European Journal of Law and Economics, 1997); on the present Russian Transformation in this same historical perspective with focus on the public goods and transportation sector as well as on customs policy (Metropolis Verlag, 1997); and on Friedrich List in the Edward Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, (Edward Elgar, 2000). Besides working 5-6 years as a carpenter, he has lately been working as an independent consultant for IFC-Norway (a consultant company) and Norwegian Investor's Forum (a think-tank), both Oslo, Norway, on matters like Norwegian Agricultural Policy Historically; Global Financial Instability in an Historical Setting. Apart from working on his thesis, he is presently working on an implementation of Advanced Transportation Systems for the Oslo region, Norway and on a project for a new business- and industry policy for Norway for the Norwegian Association of Shipowners. He has also published some two dozen articles on related issues in Norwegian national newspapers and a few letters to the editor in international newspapers (WSJ-Europe).
Since late 1997 he has been engaged as a driving force in the establishment of a company in early 1999, Norsk Sportaxi , devoted to innovative solutions to urban transit. This came as a practical result of theoretical insights of the nature of economics and the crucial role of infrastructure and innovation. Several reports and presentations have been written in this relation.