Hayek-Myrdal Interactions in the Early 1930s: New Facts Change an Old Story

Abstract It is widely believed that Friedrich Hayek's first encounter with Gunnar Myrdal involved the latter's last-minute contribution, as a replacement for Erik Lindahl, to a Sammelband edited by the former in 1933, and that Hayek was lukewarm toward Myrdal and his ideas from the very beginning. Correspondence between the two shows that, in fact, their interaction about this contribution began two years earlier and that their relationship was cooperative and cordial prior to its publication. We suggest that it was the content, and in particular the tone, of Myrdal's 1933 paper, originally intended for the Journal of Political Economy, that alienated Hayek, who nevertheless treated Myrdal's work with academic propriety thereafter. In the course of our discussion, new light is also thrown on the origins of Myrdal's famous ex post–ex ante terminology.