Svein Longva was a Norwegian economist and civil servant.

He was born in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, but his family moved to Volda in 1950. After completing

Examen artium

Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...

 his secondary education there in 1962, he enrolled in political economy

Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

 studies at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

. Here, he was briefly involved in the Norwegian Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

 student group, which was dominated by later politicians like Gudmund Hernes

Gudmund Hernes

Gudmund Hernes is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was the state secretary to the Secretariat for Long-Term Planning 1980-1981, Minister of Education and Research and Ministry of Church and Cultural Affairs 1990, Minister of Education, Research and Church Affairs 1991-1995 and...

 and Einar Førde

Einar Førde

Einar Førde was the Norwegian Minister of Education and Church Affairs 1979–1981, and director-general of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation from 1989-2001...

. After graduating with the cand.oecon.

Cand.oecon.

Candidatus oeconomices or Candidata oeconomices , often abbreviated cand.oecon. is an academic degree in economics at Danish and Norwegian universities. It is roughly equivalent to a Master of Economics, but it consists of 4+2 years, and was based on a four year cand.mag.. The degree was replaced...

 degree, he was hired in Statistics Norway

Statistics Norway

Statistics Norway is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876.Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All releases are published both in Norwegian and English...

 in 1968, was promoted to research director in 1984 and was managing director from 1991 to 2004. He was also a visiting scholar at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 for a brief period in the 1970s. He served as State Conciliator of Norway

State Conciliator of Norway

The State Conciliator of Norway is an arbitrator's office of Norway. It is invoked in labour disputes, in other words when tariff agreements are disagreed upon.It was established in 1915, and the first State Conciliator took office in 1916...

 from 2005 to 2009. In February 2009 he was relieved due to illness and replaced by Geir Engebretsen

Geir Engebretsen

Geir Engebretsen is a Norwegian jurist and civil servant.He was born in Oslo, and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1978. He was a subdirector and head of department in the Ministry of Justice and the Police from 1985 to 1991, except for the years 1987 to 1989 when he worked in the county...

. Not long after, in April 2009, Longva died.