IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/lunewp/2025_001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Hayek-Myrdal Interactions in the Early 1930s: New Facts Change an Old Story

Author

Listed:
  • Jonung, Lars

    (Department of Economics, Lund University)

  • Laidler, David

    (Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario)

Abstract

It is widely believed that Friedrich von Hayek’s first encounter with Gunnar Myrdal involved the latter’s last-minute contribution, as a replacement for Erik Lindahl, to a Sammelband edited by the former in 1933, and that Hayek was lukewarm towards Myrdal and his ideas from the very beginning. Correspondence between the two shows that, in fact Myrdal was among Hayek’s original invitees, and that their relationship was co-operative and cordial for two years prior to the publication of this collection. We suggest that the content, and perhaps even more, the tone of Myrdal’s paper, originally intended for the Journal of Political Economy, alienated Hayek, who nevertheless treated Myrdal’s work with academic propriety thereafter. The origin of Myrdal’s famous ex post – ex ante terminology is also revealed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonung, Lars & Laidler, David, 2025. "Hayek-Myrdal Interactions in the Early 1930s: New Facts Change an Old Story," Working Papers 2025:1, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2025_001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/208636965/WP25_1
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gunnar Myrdal, 1951. "The Trend Towards Economic Planning1," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 19(1), pages 1-42, January.
    2. Gerhard Mackenroth, 1930. "Period of Production, Durability, and the Rate of Interest in the Economic Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(6), pages 629-629.
    3. Lord Robbins, 1971. "Autobiography of an Economist," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-01164-3, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thiago Dumont Oliveira & Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak, 2016. "Lionel Robbins’ first-step individualism and the prehistory of microfoundations," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 537, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    2. Peter G. Warr, 1978. "The Case Against Tariff Compensation," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 22(2-3), pages 85-98, 08-12.
    3. Walter Block & William Barnett II, 2007. "On Laidler regarding the Austrian business cycle theory," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 43-61, March.
    4. Juan Carlos de Pablo, 2009. "¿Qué significa ser economista en argentina?," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 410, Universidad del CEMA.
    5. Bruce Caldwell, 2020. "The Road to Serfdom after 75 Years," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(3), pages 720-748, September.
    6. Reinhard Neck, 2019. "Perpetrators and victims: Austrian economists under the Nazis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(3), pages 537-546, August.
    7. Richard M. Ebeling, 2020. "The Geneva connection, a liberal world order, and the Austrian economists," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 535-554, December.
    8. Brigitte Granville & Judith Shapiro, 2008. "Scratch a Would-Be Planner: Robbins, Neoclassical Economics and the End of Socialism," Working Papers 11, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    9. G. John Ikenberry, 1993. "The Political Origins of Bretton Woods," NBER Chapters, in: A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform, pages 155-198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Roger E. Backhouse, 2014. "Hayek and Keynes," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 5, pages 94-115, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Hansjoerg Klausinger, 2014. "Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918–1945," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 42(2), pages 191-204, June.
    12. Sandra J. Peart & David M. Levy, 2005. "From Cardinal to Ordinal Utility Theory," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 851-879, July.
    13. Gilles Dostaler, 2001. "De J.R. à John ou les métamorphoses de Hicks: éléments de biographie intellectuelle," Cahiers de recherche du Département des sciences économiques, UQAM 20-08, Université du Québec à Montréal, Département des sciences économiques.
    14. Lawrence H. White, 2008. "Did Hayek and Robbins Deepen the Great Depression?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(4), pages 751-768, June.
    15. Thiago Dumont Oliveira & Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak, 2016. "The economist quae political economist: Lionel Robbins and the economic adivisory council," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 535, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    16. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2020. "Where Chicago meets London: James M. Buchanan, Virginia Political Economy, and cost theory," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 287-302, June.
    17. Fabio Masini, 2012. "Designing the institutions of international liberalism: some contributions from the interwar period," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 45-65, March.
    18. Roger J. Sandilands, 1999. "New evidence on Allyn Young’s style and influence as a teacher," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(6), pages 453-480, December.
    19. Spanos, Aris, 2009. "The Pre-Eminence of Theory versus the European CVAR Perspective in Macroeconometric Modeling," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-14.
    20. Annalisa Rosselli, 2005. "Sraffa and the Marshallian tradition," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 403-423.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hayek; Myrdal; Stockholm School; ex ante – ex post;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • B30 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - General
    • E10 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - General
    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2025_001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iker Arregui Alegria (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/delunse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.