Research into the distribution of prosperity. A Danish comment on some Swedish contributions

Abstract

Economic historians studying the very recent past have in the 19505 and 1960s to a large extent chosen to deal with problems connected with economic growth. This is doubtless explained by the pattem of development in Westem economies where govemments showed themselves capable of bringing productive capacity and demand so closely into balance that unemployment was reduced to a fraction of its interwar level. The whole problem of distribution—who should bear how much of the consequences of unemployment and of the other defects of society—accordingly became a secondary consideration in economic and political debate. In its place there was growing interest in how rapidly productive capacity could be raised, and the total amount of goods and services available to the public thus increased. This interest was undoubtedly stimulated by the successful industrialisation of the Soviet Union in the 1930s, the liberation of the colonies after the Second World War, and the growth of intemational communications, all emphasising the problem of what determines vigorous and widespread expansion in national production. Many economic historians in Scandinavia and elsewhere were influenced by economists such as Harrod and Demar, Cobb and Douglas, Kaldor, Solow and Rostow who attempted to answer the question. In both economics and economic history an increasing proportion of the available research capacity was devoted to projects connected with economic growth.