Circular cumulative causation

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Circular cumulative causation is a theory developed by Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal who applied it systematically for the first time in 1944 (Myrdal, G. (1944), An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, New York: Harper). It is a multi-causal approach where the core variables and their linkages are delineated. The idea behind it is that a change in one form of an institution will lead to successive changes in other institutions. These changes are circular in that they continue in a cycle, many times in a negative way, in which there is no end, and cumulative in that they persist in each round. The change does not occur all at once as that would lead to chaos, rather the changes occur gradually.