Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Eli Heckscher’s Ideological Migration Toward Market Liberalism

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Abstract

For most of his life economist and economic historian Eli Heckscher was the most firmly principled economic liberal Sweden had. He fought against state-socialist tendencies, Keynesian crisis policy, and economic planning. In his younger days, however, he was a social conservative who adopted an almost state-socialist stance. This article provides an account of Heckscher’s ideology and its development, drawing on previously untranslated policy-oriented discourse and focusing on Heckscher’s movement toward market liberalism. It details Heckscher’s liberal insights in political economy and his fears of a government with unprecedented resources, the creation of a “Frankenstein’s monster.”

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Volume (Issue)
Pages
75–99
Published
JEL classification
B1, B2, B3, A13
Keywords
Eli Heckscher, Sweden, liberalism
Downloads
4,835 article downloads
7,192 complete issue downloads
Total: 12,027

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