Combining Keynes and Schumpeter. Ingvar Svennilson?s contribution to the Swedish growth school and modern economics

Abstract

In a study of European growth in the interwar period, the Swedish economist Ingvar Svennilson integrated a Keynesian theory of cumulative growth with a Schumpeterian analysis of economic transformation. Svennilson emphasised that innovations and the use of new technologies had been stimulated by high demand and production growth. Svennilson's strong commitment to "Verdoorn's Law", which actually was "Svennilson's Law", made it difficult to incorporate him in a Schumpeterian tradition. A synthesis between Keynes and Schumpeter with Svennilson as a mediator was also prevented by the decisive role of entrepreneurship and the critique of Keynesian models in works by Schumpeter and the Swedish growth school. However, a synthesis has been facilitated by neo-Schumpeterian theories of demand-led innovations and cumulative economic processes. Svennilson's study has been superseded by later contributions to economics except for a theory of a negative, "Keynesian", relationship between unemployment and growth and an exceptional "un-Verdoornian" theory that high aggregate demand may lead to crowding-out of new firms from capital markets. Besides, Svennilson's integration of short run and long run macro analysis and of theoretical and empirical work is still a fruitful research strategy in economics.

Development blocks, malinvestment and structural tensions – the Åkerman–Dahmén theory of the business cycle

“…Johan Åkerman and Erik Dahmén are the most prominent representatives of a Swedish structural-analytical or institutional school in economics (see Erixon, 2005). Macroeconomists rightly consider Åkerman to be a precursor of the theory of the political business cycle; however, this pioneering role of Åkerman's has been disregarded here.…”