Bertil Ohlin

Bertil Ohlin (April 23, 1899 - August 3, 1979), was a Swedish economist and 1977 Nobel memorial laureate. His name lives on in the standard mathematical model of international free trade.

Related Topics:
April 23 - 1899 - August 3 - 1979 - Swedish - 1977 - Nobel memorial - Free trade

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In 1924 Ohlin received his doctorate from Stockholm University and in 1925 he became a professor at the University of Copenhagen. In 1929 he debated with John Maynard Keynes, contradicting the latter's view on the consequences of the heavy war reparations payments imposed on Germany. (Keynes predicted a war caused by the burden of debt, Ohlin thought that Germany could afford the reparations.) Although Keynes was probably right, the debate was important in the modern theory of unilateral international payments.

Related Topics:
1924 - Stockholm University - 1925 - University of Copenhagen - 1929 - John Maynard Keynes - Reparations - Germany - Unilateral

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In 1930 Ohlin succeeded Eli Heckscher, his teacher, as a professor of economics, at the Stockholm School of Economics. In 1933 Olin published a work that made him world renowned, Interregional and International Trade. In this Ohlin built an economic theory of international trade from earlier work by Heckscher and his own doctoral thesis. It is now known as the Heckscher-Ohlin model, the standard model economists use to debate trade theory.

Related Topics:
1930 - Eli Heckscher - Economics - Stockholm School of Economics - 1933 - Heckscher-Ohlin model

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The model was a break-though because it showed how comparative advantage might relate to general features of a country's capital and labour, and how these features might change through time. The model provided a basis for later work on the effects of protection on real wages, and has been fruitful in producing predictions and analysis; Ohlin himself used the model to derive the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem, that nations would specialize in industries most able to utilize their mix of national resources efficiently.

Related Topics:
Comparative advantage - Capital - Real - Heckscher-Ohlin theorem

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Later, Ohlin and other members of the "Stockholm school" extended Knut Wicksell's economic analysis to produce a theory of the macroeconomy anticipating Keynesianism.

Related Topics:
Stockholm school - Knut Wicksell - Keynesianism

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Ohlin was party leader of the liberal Folkpartiet from 1944 to 1967, the main opposition party to the Social Democrat Governments of the era, and from '44 to '45 was minister of commerce in the wartime government. His daughter Anne Wibble, representing the same party, served as Minister of Finance in 1991-1994.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Folkpartiet - 1944 - 1967 - Social Democrat - Anne Wibble - 1991 - 1994

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