Gunnar Myrdal Revisited: Cumulative Causation, Accumulation and Legitimisation

Journal title PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO
Author/s Guglielmo Forges Davanzati
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2013/3
Language Italian Pages 20 P. 110-129 File size 439 KB
DOI 10.3280/PACO2013-003006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The aim of this paper is to provide a reconstruction of Myrdal’s analysis of the factors determining the path of accumulation, in view of the pivotal role played by political institutions in promoting it. It will be shown that Myrdal’s theory of cumulative causation, combined with his idea that consensus on the existing social order is a "created harmon"”, is a powerful analytical tool in understanding a key contradiction of capitalist reproduction (particularly in a neo-liberal regime): namely the trade-off between accumulation and legitimisation.

Keywords: Gunnar Myrdal, accumulation, welfare state, political institutions

Jel codes: B25, H11, E25

  1. Angresano, J. (1997). The Political Economy of Gunnar Myrdal. Elgar.
  2. Anthon Eff, E. (1998). Myrdal contra Ohlin: Accounting for the sources of U.S. county per capita income convergence using a flexible decomposition approach, “Review of Regional Studies”, 28 (2), pp.91-103.
  3. Applequist, Ő and Andersson, S. eds. (2004), The essential Gunnar Myrdal. New York: The new Press.
  4. Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (1975). The problem with human capital theory – A Marxian critique, “The American Economic Review”, pp.74-82.
  5. Bowles, S. and Jayadev, A. (2005). Guard labor, Santa Fe Institute, mimeo.
  6. Bowles, S. and Jayadev, A. (2007). Garrison America, “The Economists’ Voice”: Vol. 4 : Iss. 2,
  7. Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (2008). Power, “The New Palgrave Encyclopedia of Economics”. London-New York: McMillan.
  8. Bunk, S. (2000). Cognition and aging. A rare colony of old macaques gives clues to age impairment, “The Scientist”, vol. 14, n.8.
  9. Coleman, J.S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital, “The Americal Journal of Sociology”, vol.94, pp.95-120.
  10. Crotty, J., Epstein, G. and Kelly, P. (1995). Multinational Corporations and Technological Change: Global Stagnation and Unemployment, paper presented for the Economic Policy Institute's Conference on "Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy: What are the Real Constraints? What are the Real Options?", Washington D.C., October 27-29
  11. Dostaler, G, Ethier, D., Lepage, L.,eds., (1992) Gunnar Myrdal and His Works, Montreal, Harvest House.
  12. Ferraton, C. (2008). ‘Les valeurs guident et accompagnent notre recherche’: L’institutionnalisme de Myrdal. ENS Paris.
  13. Forges Davanzati, G. (2006). Ethical codes and income distribution. A study of John Bates Clark and Thorstein Veblen. London: Routledge.
  14. Forges Davanzati, G. (2011). Credito, produzione, occupazione: Marx e l’istituzionalismo. Rome: Carocci.
  15. Krugman, P. (1991). Increasing returns and economic geography, “Journal of Political Economy”, vol. 99, n. 3, pp.483-499. Jackson, W.A. (1990). Gunnar Myrdal and America’s conscience. The University of Carolina Press.
  16. Lucas, L.E. (2007). Unpacking globalization. Lexington Books.
  17. Malanima P. (2007). Il prodotto delle regioni e il divario Nord-Sud in Italia, (1861-2004), “Rivista di Politica Economica”, III-IV, pp.267-315
  18. Myrdal, G. (1965 [1939]). Monetary equilibrium. New York: August M.Kelley.
  19. Myrdal, G. (1939). Fiscal policy in the business cycle, “The American Economic Review”, pp.183-193.
  20. Myrdal, G. (1944). An American dilemma: the negro problem and modern democracy. New York.
  21. Myrdal, G. (1957). Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions. London: London: General Duckworth & Co.
  22. Myrdal, G. (1958). Beyond the welfare state. Economic planning in the welfare states and its international implications. London: Methuen.
  23. Myrdal, G. (1968). Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. New York: Pantheon,
  24. O’ Connor, J. (2002 [1976]). The fiscal crisis of the State, New Jersey, St. Martin’s Press.
  25. Panico, C. and Rizza, M.O. (2009). Myrdal, growth process and equilibrium theories, in N.Salvadori, P. Commendatore and M.Tamberi (eds.), Geography, structural change and economic development: Theory and empirics. Cheltenham: Elgar, pp.183-199.
  26. Palma, J.G. (2009). The revenge of the market on the rentiers. Why neo-liberal reports of the end of history to be premature, “Cambridge Journal of Economics”, 33, pp.829-869.
  27. Piven, F. and Cloward, R. (1998). Eras of power, “Monthly Review”, vol.49, n.8.
  28. Rutherford, M. (1994). Institutional economics at Columbia University, “History of Political Economy”, 36 (spring), pp.31-78.
  29. Sai-wing Ho, P. (2004), Myrdal's backwash and spread effects in classical economics: implications for multilateral trade negotiations, “Journal of Economic Issues”, June.
  30. Sai-wing Ho,P. (2008). Arguing for policy space to promote development: Prebish, Myrdal, and Singer, “Journal of Economic Issues”, June.
  31. Samuelson, P. (1957).Wages and interest: A modern dissection of Marxian economics, “American Economic Review”, pp. 884-921.
  32. Smith, A. (1976 [1776]). An inquiry into the nature and the causes of the wealth of the nations. London: Oxford University Press.
  33. Stiglitz, J.E. (2002). Globalization and its discontent. New York: W.W.Norton.
  34. SVIMEZ (2011). Rapporto annuale sull’economia del Mezzogiorno. Rome.
  35. Tobon, A. (2006). On prices in Myrdal’s monetary theory, “History of Economics Review”, winter.
  36. Thurow, L. (1970). Investment in human capital. Balmont: Wedsworth Pub. Co.

  • Perspectives and Trends in Education and Technology Cândido Gomes, Cristina Costa-Lobo, Dulce Noronha-Sousa, Enrique Vázquez-Justo, Eusebio Costa, Susana Sá, pp.945 (ISBN:978-981-16-5062-8)

Guglielmo Forges Davanzati, Gunnar Myrdal Revisited: Cumulative Causation, Accumulation and Legitimisation in "PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO" 3/2013, pp 110-129, DOI: 10.3280/PACO2013-003006