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Development blocks, malinvestment and structural tensions – the Åkerman–Dahmén theory of the business cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2010

LENNART ERIXON
LENNART ERIXON*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Stockholm University, Sweden
*
*Email: lex@ne.su.se
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Abstract:

Johan Åkerman and Erik Dahmén's institutional theory of economic fluctuations is a constructive alternative to traditional macroeconomic approaches and also to modern business-cycle analysis based on microeconomic optimization models. By its integration of a business-cycle and growth perspective, Åkerman and Dahmén's analysis was similar to that of Schumpeter in Business Cycles. But their notions of malinvestment, structural tensions, and development blocks provided an original explanation of the turning points in the business cycle. The Åkerman–Dahmén approach is more valid for innovation-driven cycles such as the ICT boom in the late 1990s and the subsequent crisis than for cycles with an independent role of financial-market conditions.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 105 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2010

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