Who Was Gunnar Myrdal?
Let me introduce you to Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish Keynesian economist and sociologist who shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with the conservative Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, even though they stood on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
You should know that Myrdal gained recognition for his efforts in international development and trade economics, along with his activism for racial equality and his opposition to American foreign policy.
Key Takeaways
- Gunnar Myrdal was a Swedish economist, politician, and social advocate who received the Nobel Prize in 1974.
- His economic contributions included advancements in price theory and applied research in international development.
- Myrdal's left-wing political and social perspectives heavily shaped his research and writings in economics and sociology.
Understanding Gunnar Myrdal
As a Swedish Social Democrat Member of Parliament and one of the architects of the Swedish welfare state in the 1960s, Gunnar Myrdal played a key role in drafting numerous social and economic programs. In his work as an economist, he early on advanced price theory by factoring in uncertainty and expectations into pricing mechanisms. Later, much of his focus shifted to development economics and addressing social issues. He earned the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974, shared with F. A. von Hayek, for their groundbreaking contributions to the theory of money and economic fluctuations, as well as their in-depth analysis of how economic, social, and institutional factors interconnect.
Beyond his parliamentary role, Myrdal served on the Board of the Bank of Sweden and led the Swedish Post-War Planning Commission. He held the position of Sweden’s Minister of Commerce from 1945 to 1947 and was later appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
Throughout his career, Myrdal's economic research was deeply rooted in his left-wing political and social views. His first major post-graduate publication, the book 'The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory,' critiqued existing economic theory as being influenced by the political value judgments of its creators. Even after receiving the Nobel Prize, he publicly advocated for its abolition in economics, arguing that it was sometimes given to economists whose beliefs differed from his own.
Myrdal's Impact in America and Beyond
In the United States, Myrdal gained prominence through his 1944 book 'An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem in Modern Democracy,' which had a significant influence on the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that ended legal racial segregation in schools. As a staunch opponent of inequality and a proponent of wealth redistribution, Myrdal demonstrated how economic policies under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, such as minimum wage laws and cotton production restrictions, disproportionately harmed African-Americans. The Nobel committee specifically highlighted this book as crucial in their decision to award him the prize.
Later in his life, Myrdal became deeply concerned with poverty in the third world, leading him to push for land reform in South Asia as essential for eliminating poverty. He produced a multivolume study on inequality and poverty in South Asia, followed by policy recommendations for income redistribution and land reform. He vocally opposed the U.S. war in Vietnam and headed an international commission investigating alleged American war crimes.
Contributions to Economic Thought and Personal Background
Swedish economists point out that Myrdal's 1932 book 'Monetary Economics' anticipated Keynes' ideas on using stabilization policies to manage economic cycles. This approach includes deficit spending to stimulate the economy during downturns and higher taxation during booms to avoid overheating. Similar to fellow liberal-Keynesian John Kenneth Galbraith, Myrdal later critiqued these policies for rarely applying fiscal restraints during expansions, resulting in ongoing inflationary measures that disadvantaged the poorest segments of society.
Born in 1898 in Sweden, Myrdal passed away in 1987. He obtained his law degree and doctorate in economics from Stockholm University, where he eventually became a professor of political and international economy. His wife, Alva Myrdal, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 for her work on global disarmament. Their son, Jan Myrdal, a communist writer and columnist, rejected his parents' liberal views, sympathizing with Maoism and defending the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot; he died in 2020.
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