Ernst Johannes Wigforss (January 24 1881–2 January 1977) was a Swedish linguist (dialectologist), mostly known as a prominent Social Democratic politician and Swedish Minister of Finance.
Born in the town of Halmstad in Halland in southern Sweden, Wigforss studied at Lund University from 1899 and 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 (Lunds högre allmänna läroverk) 1911-1914 and as lecturer of German and Swedish at the Latin gymnasium in Gothenburg from 1914.
Wigforss had published on political issues before completing his dissertation work and was in 1919 elected a social democratic member of the First Chamber of the Swedish Parliament, representing Gothenburg, where he became member of various committees. He was appointed member of the third cabinet of Hjalmar Branting in 1924, after Branting's resignation in January 1925 that of Rickard Sandler, and was made temporary Minister of Finance on 24 January, 1925 when Fredrik Thorsson fell ill, succeeding Thorsson on 8 May of the same year, following his death. The Sandler cabinet resigned on June 7, 1926.
He was again Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Per Albin Hansson 1932–1936 and in the cabinet of Hansson and (from the former's death in 1946) Tage Erlander 1936–1949.
His economic policies were strongly influenced by John Maynard Keynes.
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