Axel Leijonhufvud

Axel Leijonhufvud (6 September 1933 – 2 May 2022) was a Swedish economist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and professor at the University of Trento, Italy. Leijonhufvud focused his studies on macroeconomic monetary theory. In his defining book On Keynesian Economics and the Economics of Keynes (1968) he focuses on a critique of the interpretation of Keynesian economic theory by Keynesian economists. He goes on to call the standard neoclassical synthesis interpretation of the Keynes' General Theory as having misunderstood and misinterpreted Keynes. In one of his papers, "Life Among the Econ" (1973), he takes a comical yet critical look at the inherent clannish nature of economists; the paper was considered a devastating takedown of economics and economists. Early life Axel was born to the noble family Leijonhufvud on 6 September 1933 in Stockholm, Sweden, to Helene Neovius and Erik Gabriel Leijonhufvud. His father was a judge in Scania, a southern province in Sweden. In his early adult years, he served as a seaman and later an officer with the Swedish Army, before leaving to study for a bachelor's degree from the University of Lund, graduating in 1960. He went to the United States on a Scandinavian American Foundation scholarship, landing at the University of Pittsburgh where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in economics. It was during his time here that he was introduced to his ultimate interest in monetary theory. He later obtained a PhD in economics from Northwestern University in 1967. Career Leijonhufvud started his career at the University of California, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor at the school of economics in 1964, and became a full-time professor in 1971. In 1991, he started the Center for Computable Economics at UCLA and remained its director until 1997. He retired from UCLA in 1994, and served as a professor emeritus. He joined the University of Trento, Italy, in 1995, as a professor of monetary theory and policy. He retired in 2009. Leijonhufvud was awarded honoris causa doctoral degrees by the University of Lund in 1983 and the University Nice Sophia Antipolis in 1996.