Summary and Conclusions

In this final chapter, the debate on economic planning is summarized, the advocates’ and opponents’ main arguments are reviewed and a number of questions are addressed: Which were the main foreign sources of inspiration? Swedish economists seldom referred to any sources of inspiration. Bertil OhlinOhlin, Bertil was the exception and his sources were mainly British. How did the economists affect Swedish economic policy? Gustav CasselCassel, Gustav , Eli HeckscherHeckscher, Eli and Ohlin exerted influence through their intense hammering out of arguments in leading newspapers while Gunnar MyrdalMyrdal, Gunnar and Gösta BaggeBagge, Gösta were more involved in policy-making; Ohlin’s “middle way” seems to have been particularly influential in the long run. How do the arguments of the Swedish economists compare to arguments of international heavyweights like Friedrich von Hayek and E. F. M. Durbin? The Swedish economists seem to have been at least as eminent in producing arguments for and against economic planning as their foreign colleagues. What can we today learn from the debate? Populist and nationalist regimes have a tendency to resort to violent government interventions to try to enhance their political and economic power and then the question arises, just as in the 1930s, how liberal market economies should respond. In this context, yesterday’s arguments for and against economic planning have a more or less timeless actuality.