Erik Lindahl

Born Nov. 21,1891, in Stockholm; died Jan. 6, 1960. Swedish economist, representative of the Stockholm school of bourgeois political economy.

Lindahl was a professor at a commercial college in Göteborg (from 1932) and at the University of Lund (from 1939) and the University of Uppsala (from 1942). He was also a consultant to the Ministry of Finance from 1935 to 1943. Lindahl was president of the International Economic Association and the author of works on the economic dynamics of business conditions and the business cycle, on national income, and on monetary, tax, and credit policies. Believing that the aim of state economic policy should be full employment and the growth of national income, Lindahl detailed the methodology of computing national income. He proposed measures to fight inflation, measures that would objectively contribute to increased exploitation. Lindahl supported the actualization of the principles of “profit,” “equal sacrifice,” and “equalization of incomes” and justified the antidemocratic tax policy of the Swedish system of social democracy.