Essay, Biography or Paragraph on “Gunnar Myrdal” complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Gunnar Myrdal

Sweden : Economic thinker

Born : 1898        Died : 1987

The leading economic thinker of the twentieth century, Gunnar Myrdal (Karl) was born in Sweden in the year 1898. He was a very clear headed economist whose views many a time got clashed with established theories and norms. He worked in Stockholm University as a professor and propounded his economic ideas from time to time. It was after Second World War that Dr Myrdal was recognised as a specialist in economics. He made a deep study of social and economic problems of South America and Asia. These areas were considered as underdeveloped. He suggested many ways to ameliorate the economic conditions of these poverty-ridden regions and opined, “The countries in Asia can never rid themselves of poverty unless they initiate harder steps.” Myrdal  also laid bare the discrimination practised against the coloured population in the US. His views on the economic and political conditions in Europe, after the war, were rather deep and penetrating. He has extensively dealt with the economic problems of South Asian countries and their rectification in his book Asian Drama. He believed that the economic problems of this region were of different nature as compared to those of European countries, which calls for different measures.

His wife Alva Myrdal was in the forefront of the movement for peace and disarmament. She was accredited with the Nobel Prize for Peace (1982). She died in February, 1987. Dr Myrdal was given Nobel Prize (Economics) in 1974. The couple were closely associated with India and had been jointly awarded ‘Jawaharlal Nehru International Peace Award’ in 1981. Gunnar Myrdal addressed a joint session of Indian Parliament in 1958 upon Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s request. Apart from Asian Drama other well-known works of this economist are: The American Dilemma, Monetary Equilibrium and Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions.