Gunnar Myrdal

Swedish economist (1898-1987) · Sweden · Academics · Died at 88

Gunnar Myrdal is read about 206 times a day, in 73 languages.

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A Swedish economist whose 1944 dissection of American racial caste became evidence in the Supreme Court case that ended legal school segregation - and whose wife won a separate Nobel Prize three decades after his.

Academics Academic Economics Politics Sweden Europe 20th Century

A life in dates

1987Died17 May 19871984“Education has in America's whole history been the major hope for improving the individual and society.”In their wordsMyrdal (1984), quoted in: Revue internationale de pédagogie expérimentale, Vol. 22-23. H. Dunantlaan 1. (1985), p. 367Read the whole statement

1981Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International UnderstandingAward1974Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred NobelAward1970Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' AssociationAward1952Kurt Lewin AwardAward1951“The term 'economic planning' and perhaps still more bluntly 'planned economy' contains a tautology...”In their wordsG. Myrdal (1951), "The Trend Towards Economic Planning." The Manchester School, 19: 1-42.Read the whole statement

1950Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of NancyAward1945Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardsAward1944“America has had gifted conservative statesmen and national leaders. But with few exceptions, only the liberals have gone down in history as national heroes.”In their wordsp. 7Read the whole statement

“The only possible way of decreasing Negro population is by means of controlling fertility.”In their wordsp. 170Read the whole statement

1939“An important distinction exists between prospective and retrospective methods of calculating economic quantities such as incomes, savings, and investments; and...”In their wordsp. 34Read the whole statement

“Some of these quantities refer directly to a point of time. That is true of "capital value" as also of such quantities as demand and supply prices. Other terms - as e.g.”In their wordsp. 46-7Read the whole statement

Fellow of the Econometric SocietyAward1898Born6 December 1898

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Gunnar Myrdal 1964 002 (cropped)

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032573-0005, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032573-0012, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032574-0003, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032575-0021, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032575-0028, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032575-0034, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F032575-0037, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

In their own words 10

Gunnar Myrdal

10 statements, newest first

Education has in America's whole history been the major hope for improving the individual and society.
1984, Myrdal (1984), quoted in: Revue internationale de pédagogie expérimentale, Vol. 22-23. H. Dunantlaan 1. (1985), p. 367, Own words
America, compared to every other country in Western Civilization, large or small, has the most explicitly expressed system of general ideals in reference to human interrelations.
1982, p. 3, reported in O. W. Markley and Willis W. Harman (eds.) Changing Images of Man (Pergamon Press, 1982) ch. 2, p. 35, Own words
The term 'economic planning' and perhaps still more bluntly 'planned economy' contains a tautology...
1951, G. Myrdal (1951), "The Trend Towards Economic Planning." The Manchester School, 19: 1-42., Own words

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Awards

Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding1981

Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel1974

Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' Association1970

Kurt Lewin Award1952

Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Nancy1950

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards1945

Fellow of the Econometric Society1939

Bronislaw Malinowski Award

Family

Gunnar Myrdal

Partners

Spouse Alva Myrdal

Children

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About this person

Gunnar Myrdal was born in Sweden on 6 December 1898 and built a career studying how economics, institutions, and social forces knot together. In 1974 he shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Friedrich Hayek for work on money theory and economic fluctuations. A decade earlier, he had published An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, a 1944 study of race relations that the Supreme Court cited in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling that dismantled legal segregation in schools. Back home, his ideas shaped Sweden's Folkhemmet - the "people's home" welfare state. When his wife Alva won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982, they became the first couple to win Nobels independently of one another. He died 17 May 1987.

Country

Sweden

In common with Gunnar

Jean TiroleBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Ben BernankeBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Paul FarmerBoth received Bronislaw Malinowski Award

Philippe AghionBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Ragnar FrischBoth received Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Fei XiaotongBoth received Bronislaw Malinowski Award

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