ABSTRACT
Lundberg (1907-87) and Lachmann (1906-90) are two economists who were very concerned with expectations, especially during the 1930s and the 1940s. They sought ways to explicitly integrate expectations into economic reasoning after the early works of Hayek, Myrdal, and Lindahl. Initially, their interest had its roots in common questions focused on business cycle theories and process analysis, in relation to the capital theory and the role of plans from the wellknown Austrian-Swedish tradition or the ‘Wicksell connection’. In his first published papers (1938, 1939 and 1940), Lachmann often quotes Lundberg, and he attempts to extend the famous Swedish dissertation (1937). But, very quickly, in spite of their initial similarities, the two approaches are going to diverge on the way to analyse expectations. Lachmann wants to return to an Austrian ‘subjectivist’ philosophy. On the contrary, Lundberg maintains an ‘objectivist’ way. They assume these two strands of thought until their last works. But Lundberg and Lachmann are also remarkable for their shared experience: from the 1950s, they scarcely arouse any more interest. On one hand, the prevailing macroeconomic Keynesianism blurs the questioning about expectations and makes Lundberg a clumsy precursor to Keynes. On the other hand, the ‘subjectivist’ analysis seems to lose its way in an indeterminate approach, whereas the microeconomic way develops a rigorous decision theory.
