Heckscher, Eli Filip

(born Nov. 24, 1879, Stockholm, Swed.—died Nov. 26, 1952, Stockholm) Swedish economist and economic historian. He taught at the Stockholm School of Economics from 1909 and was a founder and director of the Stockholm Institute for Economic History. He wrote mainly on economic history, producing such works as The Continental System (1922) and Mercantilism (1935). He originated the concept of commodity points, which limit the fluctuation of paper currencies, and argued in favour of free trade, asserting that differing productive factors were responsible for differing commodities trading advantages among nations. This hypothesis, expanded on by his student Bertil Ohlin (1899–1979), is now known as the Heckscher-Ohlin theory.

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