Konjunkiurer och Ekononiisk Pohtik which was published in Stock- holm in June 1953 The original Swedish book emerged as the result of a research project initiated in 1948 by Stiidiefbrbimdet Nanngshv och Samhalle (SNS), a pnvate institution in Stockholm for economic research and education The project was to study and analyse the functioning of economic regulations and controls m Sweden after 1945 For some years before and after 1945 1 had been vice-chairman of the central Pnce Control Board in Sweden and had thus obtained some insight into the workings of the Swedish price control s}'stem as w ell as of import and building regulations One of the first tasks in the research project was to try to discoer the attitudes and reactions to controls of businessmen engaged in industnal production and distri- bution In 1949 therefore a written questionnaire was circulated to firms and the replies were followed up by interviews, reference is made in the te’tt to the findings of this sur\ey It soon became clear that the methods of physical regulation em ployed in Sw eden dunng and after the war could only be satisfactorily analysed if comparisons were made with more genera) methods of economic pohey and, in particular, with monetary and fiscal measures In order to make such comparisons, I extended the scope of my in- vestigations to include the discussions and experiences of the latter types of policy in the intcr-w ar penod This obviously entailed a study of Swedish economic fluctuations and general dexelopmenl over the whole period from 1918 to the present As director of AoM/Uflkr«m- stiuitet (the Swedish Economic Research Institute, an official organi- 2 ation f^or the study of business cycles and economic trends, ap- pointed and financed by the government but with complete indepen- dence in views and research) I was well placed to include such a study m this work In this >vay the research plans of SNS and Konjunk- turinsiuutet came to be combined and the Swedish book appeared under the joint sponsorship of these two bodies