Myrdal, Gunnar (1898–1987)

Swedish economist and sociologist Karl Gunnar Myrdal was born in the Gustaf parish of Sweden and received his law degree from Stockholm University at the age of 25. He was highly regarded for his work as a theorist of international relations and, in particular, of Third World development policies and race relations in multiracial societies. Myrdal's early work was exclusively devoted to pure theory, which stands in sharp contrast to the work on applied economics and social problems, the work for which he is mostly known in the United States.

With respect to his applied work, in 1938 the Carnegie Corporation of New York extended an invitation to Myrdal to examine America's “Negro problem.” The Carnegie-sponsored research conducted by Myrdal resulted in the publication of the two-volume, 3,000-page tome An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy in 1944. In this work, Myrdal posited two main theses, a sociological one and an economic one. With respect to the former thesis, Myrdal posited that the core American dilemma is a conflict between its dominant values, [Page 999]such as freedom, justice, and equality across all areas of life, and the failure of white Americans to apply these values to their treatment of black and other subjugated U.S. populations. Myrdal also found that the American creed—that is, hard work, individual effort, self-reliance, and personal responsibility—was often employed by white Americans to explain away social group inequality in society.

Myrdal also posited his economic theory of cumulative causation in An American Dilemma, in which he posited that poverty bred poverty, thus contributing to the material basis of inequality. Although Myrdal's sociological theses holds purchase on much of American sociological thought, his economic theory had a greater influence in informing worldwide development economics. Here, he argued that, rather than rich and poor countries converging with economic development, they would more than likely diverge such that poor countries would become poorer as the rich countries enjoyed economies of scale and the poor ones would be forced to rely on primary products.

After his stint with the Carnegie Corporation, Myrdal continued to exert considerable influence in other areas of public life, including service from 1947 to 1957 as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Myrdal and his colleague Friedrich August von Hayek were awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their analysis of the interdependence of economic, social, and institutional phenomena. Significantly, Alva Reimer Myrdal, whom Myrdal married in 1924 and who was very influential in her husband's life, was the recipient of the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize.