He was born in Stjørdal as a son of farmers Petter Jakob Bjerve, Sr. (1869–1928) and Kristine Arnstad (1870–1961).[1] He married Rannveig Bremer, a daughter of Anders H. Bremer.[2]
Bjerve attended secondary school in Orkdal, and was active in Clarté before joining the Labour Party. He studied under Ragnar Frisch at the University of Oslo,[2][3] and graduated with the cand.oecon. degree in 1941. He studied at The American University, Washington DC from 1938 to 1939 and again in the US with a Rockefeller Foundation grant from 1947 to 1949. At the University of Oslo he worked as a research assistant from 1939 to 1940, teacher from 1941 to 1943 and research fellow from 1945 to 1949. He also held sporadic lectures between 1945 and 1960. He was also a visiting professor at Stanford University from 1954 to 1955. He was also a secretary in Statistics Norway from 1944 to 1945 and assistant secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Finance. In 1949 he was hired as a director in Statistics Norway. He remained here until 1980.[1] The exception was his period as Minister of Finance in Gerhardsen's Third Cabinet, from 23 April 1960 until his resignation on 4 February 1963.[4] His doctorate thesis Planning in Norway 1947–1953 was finished in 1959, and he defended his thesis for the dr.philos. degree in 1962 while serving as Minister of Finance.[1][2]
He was also a board member of Riksskattestyret from 1959 to 1963, Dag og Tid from 1965 to 1967 and Ja til EF 1972, and chairman of Livstrygdelaget Andvake from 1979 to 1985.[1]