Born in the town of Halmstad in Halland in southwestern Sweden, Wigforss studied at Lund University from 1899, and published writings on political issues in this period. He completed a doctorate in 1913 with a dissertation on the dialect of south Halland, becoming docent in Scandinavian languages at the university the same year. He taught at the gymnasium in Lund 1911-1914 and as lecturer of German and Swedish at the Latin gymnasium in Gothenburg from 1914.
Political career
In 1919 Wigforss was elected as a Social Democratic member of the First Chamber of the Swedish Parliament, representing Gothenburg, and he became a member of various committees. He was appointed a member of the third cabinet of Hjalmar Branting in 1924, and after Branting's resignation in January 1925, became a member of Rickard Sandler's cabinet. He was made temporary Minister of Finance on 24 January 1925 when Fredrik Thorsson fell ill, and succeeded him on 8 May of the same year, following his death. The Sandler cabinet resigned on 7 June 1926. He was again Minister of Finance in the cabinets of Per Albin Hansson and Tage Erlander from 1932 to 1949. Wigforss became Gunnar Myrdal's main political opponentwith respect to the currency crisis of 1947. Swedish historians tend to interpret this crisis as Myrdal's political failure, while the historian Orjan Appelqvist argue that it is Wigforss and Axel Gjöres who hold primary responsibility for this political fiasco. Some say that Wigforss' economic policies were strongly influenced by John Maynard Keynes, but he may have anticipated Keynes, because he proposed counter-cyclical economic policy before becoming minister of finance in 1932. But it is perhaps most accurate to claim that his main economic influences came from Knut Wicksell. He inspired younger economists like Gunnar Myrdal and the Stockholm school, who worked in the same direction as Keynes at the same time. John Kenneth Galbraith writes that it "would be more fair to say 'The Swedish Economic Revolution' than the 'Keynesian revolution' in economics, and that Wigforss was first in this transformation of thinking and practice about economy". In his pamphlet , widely believed to have won the 1932 elections for the Social Democrats, he made fun of the Liberal theory that budget cuts are the proper remedy for economic downturns. Although he is considered the creator of the Swedish social democratic economy, controversies with Minister for Social Affairs Gustav Möller prevented both from being elected party chairman and Prime Minister at the death of Hansson.
Later life
After his resignation, Wigforss continued until his death to write and speak on political issues and was considered one of the most innovative and daring Social Democratic politicians. He supported the anti-nuclear movement of the 1950s and contributed to the discontinuation of the Swedish nuclear arms programme in 1962.
