28 Facts About Gunnar Myrdal

Karl Gunnar Myrdal was a Swedish economist and sociologist.

Gunnar Myrdal is best known in the United States for his study of race relations, which culminated in his book An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.

Gunnar Myrdal was born on 6 December 1898, in Skattungbyn, Sweden, to Karl Adolf Pettersson, a building contractor, and his wife Anna Sofia Karlsson.

Gunnar Myrdal took the name Myrdal in 1914 after his ancestors' farm Myr in the province of Dalarna.

Gunnar Myrdal graduated with a law degree from Stockholm University in 1923 and a doctorate in economics in 1927.

Gunnar Myrdal built on Knut Wicksell's theories of cumulative process of endogenous money, stressing the importance of Knightian uncertainty and ex ante and ex post expectations role in the economic process.

Between 1925 and 1929, Gunnar Myrdal studied in Britain and Germany.

The Political Element is a compilation of Gunnar Myrdal's lectures presented at the University of Stockholm.

Gunnar Myrdal believed that economics would be considered a true science only when the political aspect was dissociated.

Gunnar Myrdal wrote that although economists claim to be scientific and objective, their conclusion from their analyses was always politically inclined.

Gunnar Myrdal was at first fascinated by the abstract mathematical models coming into fashion in the 1920s, and helped found the Econometric Society in London.

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

Gunnar Myrdal was professor of economics at Stockholms Hogskola for 15 years, until 1947.

Gunnar Myrdal became a Social Democratic Member of Parliament from 1933, and again from 1945 to 1947 he served as Minister of Commerce and Industry in Tage Erlander's government.

Gunnar Myrdal coauthored with his wife, Alva Myrdal, the Crisis in the Population Question.

Gunnar Myrdal headed a comprehensive study of sociological, economic, anthropological and legal data on race relations in the United States funded by the Carnegie Corporation, starting in 1938.

Gunnar Myrdal planned on doing a similar study on gender inequality, but he could not find funding for this project and never completed it.

Gunnar Myrdal became the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in 1947.

Gunnar Myrdal presided over the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an international watch-dog for the arms trade.

Gunnar Myrdal was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

In 1967 Gunnar Myrdal received an honorary doctorate from Sir George Williams University, which later became Concordia University.

Gunnar Myrdal received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1979.

Alva Gunnar Myrdal was a prominent leader of the disarmament movement.

Gunnar Myrdal suffered from Parkinson's disease and was hospitalized for two months before he died in a hospital in Trangsund, south of Stockholm, on 17 May 1987.

Gunnar Myrdal published many notable works, both before and after American Dilemma and, among many other contributions to social and public policy, founded and chaired the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Gunnar Myrdal suggested that we need to evolve from the welfare state to the welfare world, which would enable the redistribution of income and wealth not only within a country but on a global scale.

Gunnar Myrdal's recommendations were not accepted by international technocrats or by developing countries.

Gunnar Myrdal pointed out the following limitations of the welfare state:.