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Gunnar Myrdal

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Gunnar Myrdal
Myrdal in 1964
Born
Karl Gunnar Myrdal

(1898-12-06)6 December 1898
Skattungbyn,Sweden
Died17 May 1987(1987-05-17)(aged 88)
Trångsund,Sweden
EducationStockholm University
Spouse
​
​
(m.1924; died 1986)​
Children3, includingSissela BokandJan Myrdal
RelativesStefan Fölster(grandson)
Academic career
FieldMacroeconomics,sociology
InstitutionStockholm University
New York University
Geneva Graduate Institute
School or
tradition		Stockholm school
Doctoral
advisor		Gustav Cassel
Doctoral
students
InfluencesKnut Wicksell
John R. Commons[1]
Raúl Prebisch
ContributionsMonetary equilibrium,ex-ante,circular cumulative causation
AwardsNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences(1974)[2]
Bronislaw Malinowski Award(1975)

Karl Gunnar Myrdal(/ˈmɜːrdɑːl,ˈmɪər-/MUR-dahl,MEER-;Swedish:[ˈɡɵ̌nːarˈmy̌ːɖɑːl];6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedisheconomistandsociologist.

In 1974, he received theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesalong withFriedrich Hayekfor "their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena."[2]When his wife,Alva Myrdal,received theNobel Peace Prizein 1982, they became thefourth ever married coupleto have won Nobel Prizes, and the first and only to win independent of each other (versus a shared Nobel Prize by scientist spouses).

He is best known in the United States for his study of race relations, which culminated in his bookAn American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.The study was influential in the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court DecisionBrown v. Board of Education.

In Sweden, his work and political influence were important to the establishment of theFolkhemmetand thewelfare state.[3]

Early life and education

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Myrdal was born on 6 December 1898, inSkattungbyn,Sweden, to Karl Adolf Pettersson (1876–1934), a building contractor, and his wife Anna Sofia Karlsson (1878–1965). He took the nameMyrdalin 1914 after his ancestors' farm Myr in the province ofDalarna.

There is a possibly apocryphal story about an interaction between him andGustav Cassel,where Cassel was reported to say, "Gunnar, you should be more respectful to your elders, because it is we who will determine your promotion," and he replied, "Yes, but it is we who will write your obituaries."[4]

Gunnar Myrdal graduated with a law degree fromStockholm Universityin 1923 and a doctorate in economics in 1927. In June 1919, he metAlva Reimer,whom he married in October 1924[5]and had the first of their three children in 1927.

Myrdal'sPhDthesis,The Problem of Price Formation under Economic Change,had three parts: The Basics of the Dynamic Problem of Price Formation, The Problem of the Profit of the Enterprise, and The Optimal Mode of Construction and Change, the most mathematical of the three, where he studied equilibrium of price formation under dynamic conditions.

In Gunnar Myrdal's doctoral dissertation, published in 1927, he examined the role of expectations in price formation. His analysis strongly influenced theStockholm school.He built onKnut Wicksell's theories ofcumulative processofendogenous money,stressing the importance ofKnightian uncertaintyandex anteandex postexpectations role in the economic process.

Early career

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Between 1925 and 1929, Myrdal studied in Britain and Germany. He was a Rockefeller Fellow and visited the United States in 1929–1930. During this period, he published his first books, includingThe Political Element in the Development of Economic Theoryin 1930.Returning to Europe, he served for one year as associate professor in theGraduate Institute of International Studies,Geneva, Switzerland.[2]

The Political Elementis a compilation of Myrdal's lectures presented at the University of Stockholm. It gives us the historical account of the influence of politics in the development of economic theory and the relation between them. Gunnar believed that economics would be considered a true science only when the political aspect was dissociated. It was initially written to criticize the older generation of Swedish economists such asEli Heckscher,Gustav Cassel,and Brisman, for combining and confusing facts and values in their theories of ‘maximum welfare’, ‘price level’, and ‘national income’. But later it turned out be a general critique of the economic theory where he emphasized that economics should be objective and independent from values. He wrote that although economists claim to be scientific and objective, their conclusion from their analyses was always politically inclined.The Political Elementwas translated to German in 1932 and to English in 1953.[6]

Gunnar Myrdal was at first fascinated by the abstract mathematical models coming into fashion in the 1920s, and helped found theEconometric Societyin London. Later, however, he accused the movement of ignoring the problem of distribution of wealth in its obsession with economic growth, of using faulty statistics and substituting Greek letters for missing data in its formulas and of flouting logic. He wrote, "Correlations are not explanations and besides, they can be as spurious as the high correlation in Finland between foxes killed and divorces." Professor Myrdal was an early supporter of the theses ofJohn Maynard Keynes,although he maintained that the basic idea of adjusting national budgets to slow or speed an economy was first developed by him and articulated in his bookMonetary Economics,published in 1932, four years prior to Keynes'General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.[4]

William Barber's comment upon Myrdal's work on monetary theory goes like this:

If his contribution had been available to readers of English before 1936, it is interesting to speculate whether the ‘revolution’ in macroeconomic theory of the depression decade would be referred to as 'Myrdalian' as much as 'Keynesian'.[7]

EconomistG. L. S. Shackleclaimed the importance of Gunnar Myrdal's analysis by which saving and investment are allowed to adjust ex ante to each other. However, the reference toex anteandex postanalysis has become so usual in modernmacroeconomicsthat the position of Keynes to not include it in his work was currently considered as an oddity, if not a mistake. As Shackle put it:

Myrdalian ex ante language would have saved the General Theory from describing the flow of investment and the flow of saving as identically, tautologically equal, and within the same discourse, treating their equality as a condition which may, or not, be fulfilled.[8]

Gunnar Myrdal also developed the key conceptcircular cumulative causation,a multi-causal approach where the core variables and their linkages are delineated.

Academic career

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Gunnar Myrdal became professor at Stockholms Högskola 1933. Myrdal was professor of economics at Stockholms Högskola for 15 years, until 1947.[9]

He became aSocial DemocraticMember of Parliament from 1933, and again from 1945 to 1947 he served asMinister of Commerce and IndustryinTage Erlander's government. During this period, he was heavily criticized for his financial agreement with the Soviet Union. At the same time he was accused of being responsible for the Swedish monetary crisis in 1947.[10]

He coauthored with his wife,Alva Myrdal,theCrisis in the Population Question(Swedish:Kris i befolkningsfrågan,1934). The work of Gunnar and Alva inspired policies adopted by the Minister of Social Affairs,Gustav Möller,to provide social support to families.

Gunnar Myrdal headed a comprehensive study of sociological, economic, anthropological and legal data on race relations in the United States funded by theCarnegie Corporation,starting in 1938. The result of the effort was Gunnar Myrdal's best-known work,An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,published in 1944, written with the collaboration of R. M. E. Sterner and Arnold Rose.[11]He characterized the problem of race relations as a dilemma because of a perceived conflict between high ideals, embodied in what he called the "American Creed," on the one hand and poor performance on the other. In the generations since the Civil War, the U.S. had been unable to put its human rights ideals into practice for the African American tenth of its population.[12]This book was cited by theU.S. Supreme Courtin its 1954 decision inBrown v. Board of Education,which outlawed racial segregation in public schools. Myrdal planned on doing a similar study on gender inequality, but he could not find funding for this project and never completed it.

World War II and after

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During World War II, Gunnar Myrdal was staunchly and publicly anti-Nazi. Together with his wife,Alva,he wroteContact with Americain 1941, which praised the United States' democratic institutions.[13]

Gunnar Myrdal became the Executive Secretary of theUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europein 1947. During his tenure, he founded one of the leading centers of economic research and policy development.[14]After ten years in the position, Dr. Myrdal resigned as Executive Secretary in 1957. In 1956 and 1957, he was able to publishAn International Economy, Problems and Prospects,Rich Lands and PoorandEconomic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions.[15]Myrdal was also a signatory of the 1950UNESCOstatementThe Race Question,which rebuts the theories of racial supremacy and purity, and also influenced theBrown v. Board of Educationdecision. “What he knew about [United States] constitutional law we are not told nor have we been able to learn.”[16]In 1956, Myrdal wrote the foreword for African American author Richard Wright'sThe Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference.

Between 1960 and 1967, he was a professor ofinternational economicsatStockholm University.In 1961, he founded theInstitute for International Economic Studiesat the University. Throughout the 1960s, he worked on a comprehensive study of trends and policies in South Asia for theTwentieth Century Fund.The study culminated in his three-volumeAsian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations,published in 1968. In 1970, he published a companion book calledThe Challenge of World Poverty,where he laid out what he believed to be the chief policy solutions to the problems he outlined inAsian Drama.

Gunnar Myrdal strongly opposed theVietnam War.InAsian Drama,Myrdal predicted that land reform and pacification would fail inVietnamand urged the United States to begin negotiations withNorth Vietnam.After returning to Sweden, he headed the Swedish Vietnam Committee and became co-chair of International Commission of Inquiry Into U.S. War Crimes in Indochina. He also presided over theStockholm International Peace Research Institute,an international watchdog for the arms trade.[17]He was one of the signers of theHumanist Manifesto.[18]

Myrdal in 1980

In 1967 Myrdal received an honorary doctorate fromSir George Williams University,which later becameConcordia University.[19]

In 1971 both he and his wife received honorary doctorates fromGustavus Adolphus Collegein Saint Peter, Minnesota.

He shared theBank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences(otherwise known as theNobel Memorial Prize in Economics) withFriedrich Hayekin 1974,[20]but argued for its abolition because he believed that economics is a “soft” science.[21]

During 1974–1975, he served as visiting professor atNYU.[22]

Myrdal received anHonorary DoctoratefromHeriot-Watt Universityin 1979.[23]

Personal life

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Alva and Gunnar Myrdal circa 1980

Myrdal married politician and diplomatAlva Myrdalin 1924, and together had sonJan Myrdal(born 1927), daughterSissela Bok(born 1934) and daughter Kaj Fölster (born 1936).[24]Through Fölster, he is the grandfather of Swedish economistStefan Fölster.

Alva Myrdal was a prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She, along withAlfonso García Robles,received theNobel Peace Prizein 1982.

Myrdal suffered fromParkinson's diseaseand was hospitalized for two months before he died in a hospital inTrångsund,south ofStockholm,on 17 May 1987. His daughter Kaj Fölster and his grandson, Janken Myrdal, were present.[25]

Contributions to the philosophy of knowledge

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Gunnar Myrdal's scientific influence was not limited to economics. Through the introduction toAsian Dramawith the title "The Beam in our Eyes" (a biblical reference; cf.Matthew 7:1–2) he introduced the approach mentioned as scientific relativism of values. This behavioral approach is narrowly connected tobehavioralismand is built on the idea that the logical gulf between "is" and "ought" is more sophisticated than just dividing premises into categories. The articles edited in "Value in Social Theory" underlines Myrdal's importance to political science. As political science normally is considered more descriptive than economics, one might get the idea that Myrdal should not have dealt systematically with the values applied to economics. On the contrary, Myrdal connectedsocial science,political scienceandeconomicsas a practitioner.

Myrdal published many notable works, both before and afterAmerican Dilemmaand, among many other contributions to social and public policy, founded and chaired theStockholm International Peace Research Institute.Internationally revered as a father-figure ofsocial policy,he contributed tosocial democraticthinking throughout the world, in collaboration with friends and colleagues in the political and academic arenas. Sweden and Britain were among the pioneers of awelfare stateand books by Myrdal (Beyond the Welfare State– New Haven, 1958) andRichard Titmuss(Essays on “The Welfare State”– London, 1958) unsurprisingly explore similar themes. Myrdal's theoretical key concept "circular cumulative causation" contributed to the development of modernNon-equilibrium economics.[26]

Welfare world

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Myrdal suggested that we need to evolve from the welfare state to the welfare world, which would enable theredistribution of income and wealthnot only within a country but also on a global scale. During theCold Warera, InBeyond the Welfare State,he proposed the idea of the welfare world to overcome the limitations of thewelfare statein the West.[27]Myrdal's recommendations were not accepted by international technocrats or by developing countries.[27]However, he also thought it a more difficult task to establish the welfare world than a welfare state.[28]

He pointed out the following limitations of the welfare state:

  • Nationalismof already existing Western welfare states preventing development in underdeveloped countries.
  • Other difficulties of development in thedeveloping countries.
  • Existence of thecommunist countriesacting as a provocateur for more revolutionary transformations.

Awards and honours

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Awards

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Honorary degrees

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Honours

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Publications

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  • The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory.(1930)
  • Monetary Equilibrium(1931), translated to English in 1939
  • The Cost of Living in Sweden, 1830–1930(1933)
  • Crisis in the Population Question(1934)
  • Fiscal Policy in the Business Cycle.The American Economic Review,vol 21, no 1, Mar 1939.
  • Population, a Problem for Democracy.Harvard University Press, 1940.
  • Contact With America(1941)[46]
  • An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.Harper & Bros, 1944.
  • Social Trends in America and Strategic Approaches to the Negro Problem.Phylon,Vol. 9, No. 3, 3rd Quarter, 1948.
  • Conference of the British Sociological Association, 1953. II Opening Address: The Relation between Social Theory and Social Policy The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Sept. 1953.
  • An International Economy, Problems and Prospects.Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956.
  • Rich Lands and Poor.1957.
  • Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions,Gerald Duckworth, 1957.
  • Value in Social Theory: A Selection of Essays on Methodology.Ed. Paul Streeten, published by Harper, 1958.
  • Myrdal (1960).Beyond the Welfare State.Yale University Press.
  • Challenge to Affluence.Random House, 1963.
  • America and Vietnam – Transition,No. 3, Oct, 1967.
  • Twenty Years of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.International Organization,Vol 22, No. 3, Summer, 1968.
  • Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations,1968.
  • Objectivity in Social Research,1969.
  • The Challenge of World Poverty: A World Anti-Poverty Program in Outline.1970.
  • Against the Stream.
  • Hur Styrs Landet?,1982.
  • Gunnar Myrdal on Population Policy in the Underdeveloped World – Population and Development Review, Vol 13, No. 3, Sept. 1987.
  • The Equality Issue in World Development – The American Economic Review, vol 79, no 6, Dec 1989.

References

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  1. ^Jackson, Walter A. (1 February 1994).Gunnar Myrdal and America's Conscience: Social Engineering and Racial Liberalism, 1938-1987.UNC Press Books.ISBN978-0-8078-4460-1.
  2. ^abcGunnar Myrdalon Nobelprize.orgEdit this at Wikidata,accessed 3 May 2020
  3. ^Carlson, Benny (2018)."Swedish Economists in the 1930s Debate on Economic Planning".Springer:37–38.doi:10.1007/978-3-030-03700-0.ISBN978-3-030-03699-7.
  4. ^ab "Gunnar Myrdal, Analyst of Race Crisis, Dies".The New York Times.18 May 1987.Retrieved17 August2010.
  5. ^"(Karl) Gunnar Mydral Biography".biography.com.9 August 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 18 August 2010.Retrieved9 August2010.
  6. ^Myrdal, Gunnar (2017).The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory with a new introduction by Richard Swedberg.Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group. pp. xvi–xvii, xxiii.ISBN978-0-88738-827-9.
  7. ^Barber, William (2008).Gunnar Myrdal: an intellectual biography.Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-0-230-28901-7.OCLC681925215.
  8. ^Shackle, G.L.S. (1989)."3: What did the General Theory do?".In John Pheby (ed.).New Directions in Post-Keynesian Economics.Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 48.ISBN978-1-78254-355-8.
  9. ^"Gunnar Myrdal".Nationalencyklopedin.29 October 2023.
  10. ^Appelqvist, Örjan (15 June 1999),Gunnar Myrdal i svensk politik 1943–1947,Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin,doi:10.18452/7729,retrieved14 August2019
  11. ^"Gunnar Myrdal Facts, information, pictures".Encyclopedia.com.11 August 2010.Retrieved11 August2010.
  12. ^"An American Dilemma".PBS.org.9 August 2010.Retrieved9 August2010.
  13. ^"Gunnar Myrdal, Analyst of Race Crisis, Dies".The New York Times.18 May 1987.Retrieved17 August2010.
  14. ^"Gunnar Myrdal, An Intellectual Biography".Epress.anu.edu.au.11 August 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 11 April 2011.Retrieved11 August2010.
  15. ^Higgins, Benjamin (1957)."Prospects for an International Economy".World Politics.9(3): 458–471.doi:10.2307/2008926.hdl:1721.1/85157.ISSN1086-3338.JSTOR2008926.S2CID155704309.
  16. ^State ex rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, 93 So. 2d 354, 361 (Fla. 1957).
  17. ^"Gunnar Myrdal, Analyst of Race Crisis, Dies".The New York Times.18 May 1987.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved14 August2019.
  18. ^"Humanist Manifesto II".American Humanist Association. Archived fromthe originalon 20 October 2012.Retrieved10 October2012.
  19. ^ab"Honorary degree citation - Karl Gunnar Myrdal*".Concordia University.Retrieved23 September2020.
  20. ^"The Prize in Economics 1974".nobelprize.org.9 August 2010.Retrieved9 August2010.
  21. ^"Nobel Award in Economics: Should Prize Be Abolished?".The New York Times.31 March 1977.
  22. ^Clark, Kenneth Bancroft (2004).Toward Humanity and Justice: The Writings of Kenneth B. Clark, Scholar of the 1954 Brown V. Board of Education Decision.Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 285.ISBN978-0-275-97509-8.
  23. ^"Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates".www1.hw.ac.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 18 April 2016.Retrieved6 April2016.
  24. ^Harnesk, Paul, ed. (1962).Vem är vem? 1, Stor-Stockholm[Who's Who? 1, Greater Stockholm] (in Swedish) (2nd ed.). Stockholm: Vem är vem. p. 935.SELIBR53509.
  25. ^"Gunnar Myrdal, Analyst of Race Crisis, Dies".The New York Times.18 May 1987.Retrieved17 August2010.
  26. ^Berger, Sebastian(6 July 2009).The Foundations of Non-Equilibrium Economics. The principle of circular and cumulative causation.Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-77780-3.Retrieved21 October2010.
  27. ^abJohnson, Marianne (2022)."Towards a Global Intellectual History of an Unequal World Swedish intellectual thought on inequality and a 'welfare world'".Global Intellectual History.doi:10.1080/23801883.2022.2062415.ISSN2380-1883.
  28. ^Myrdal (1960),p. 220 (by the Japanese ed.).
  29. ^"Alva Reimer Myrdal".Encyclopædia Britannica.Retrieved23 September2020.
  30. ^ab"Gunnar Myrdal – Biographical".Nobel Prize.Retrieved23 September2020.
  31. ^"Past Veblen-Commons Award Recipients".afee.net.Retrieved8 March2024.
  32. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxVem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1985[Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1985] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. 1984. p. 785.ISBN91-1-843222-0.SELIBR3681527.
  33. ^"Honorary Degree Types".Columbia University Libraries.Retrieved23 September2020.
  34. ^"Honorary Graduates 1904–2019".University of Leeds.p. 9.Retrieved23 September2020.
  35. ^"Honorary Degrees Since 1702".Yale University.Retrieved23 September2020.
  36. ^"HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS".Brandeis University.Retrieved23 September2020.
  37. ^"Recipients of Honorary Degrees and Other University Honors (by year)".Howard University.Retrieved23 September2020.
  38. ^"Past Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipients".Swarthmore College.8 July 2014.Retrieved23 September2020.
  39. ^Gustafsson, Bo (1987–1989)."K Gunnar Myrdal".Svenskt biografiskt lexikon(in Swedish). Vol. 26.National Archives of Sweden.p. 144.Retrieved23 September2020.
  40. ^"Honorary Degrees Awarded 1836-Present"(PDF).University of Michigan.24 January 2018. p. 13.Retrieved23 September2020.
  41. ^"Past Honorary Degree Recipients".Temple University.Retrieved23 September2020.
  42. ^DeMartino, Nick (22 November 1968)."Strickler inaugurated as 15th UL president".The Louisville Cardinal.Vol. XXX, no. 10.Retrieved23 September2020.[permanent dead link]
  43. ^"The Commencement Address".Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.Dartmouth College.July 1971. p. 14.Retrieved23 September2020.
  44. ^"Nobel Laureates Holding Honorary Degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College".Gustavus Adolphus College.Retrieved23 September2020.
  45. ^"Heriot-Watt University Honorary Graduates"(PDF).Heriot-Watt University.p. 4.Retrieved23 September2020.
  46. ^Roberts, Gene; Klibanoff, Hank (2007).The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.Vintage.ISBN978-0-679-73565-6.
[edit]
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Awards
Preceded by Laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
1974
Served alongside:Friedrich August von Hayek 		Succeeded by
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