Benny Carlson

During the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy in the mid-1940s, Sweden experienced a heated debate on economic planning in which a number of Sweden’s leading economists were involved. In 1941, Ingvar Svennilson, a member of the so-called Stockholm school of economists, became the head of the Industrial Institute of Economic and Social Research, founded by Swedish industry. During the following years he wrote extensively on the issue of economic planning. Although this issue was ideologically explosive, he managed to strike a balance which earned him respect in most camps. His focus gradually shifted from central planning during the war, toward framework planning and indicative planning after the war, when he designed the first Swedish long-term survey.