Axel Leijonhufvud | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 September 1933 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Died | 2 May 2022(2022-05-02) (aged 88) |
| Burial place | Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery,Los Angeles |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Doctoral advisors | Meyer Louis Burstein Robert W. Clower |
| Influences | Léon Walras,John Maynard Keynes |
| Academic work | |
| School or tradition | Disequilibrium macroeconomics |
| Institutions | |
Axel Leijonhufvud (6 September 1933 – 2 May 2022)[1][2] was a Swedisheconomist and professoremeritus at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and professor at theUniversity of Trento,Italy. Leijonhufvud focused his studies onmacroeconomicmonetary theory. In his defining bookOn Keynesian Economics and the Economics of Keynes (1968) he focuses on a critique of the interpretation ofKeynesian 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[by whom?] of economics and economists.
Axel was born to the noble familyLeijonhufvud[a] on 6 September 1933 inStockholm, Sweden, to Helene Neovius and Erik Gabriel Leijonhufvud.[1] His father was a judge inScania, a southern province in Sweden. In his early adult years, he served as aseaman and later anofficer with theSwedish Army, before leaving to study for a bachelor's degree from theUniversity of Lund, graduating in 1960. He went to theUnited States on aScandinavian American Foundation scholarship, landing at theUniversity of Pittsburgh where he obtained aMaster of Arts degree in economics. It was during his time here that he was introduced to his ultimate interest inmonetary theory. He later obtained aPhD in economics fromNorthwestern University in 1967.[1]
Leijonhufvud started his career at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor at the school of economics in 1964, and became a full-time professor in 1971.[4] In 1991, he started the Center for Computable Economics at UCLA and remained its director until 1997.[5] He retired from UCLA in 1994, and served as aprofessor emeritus. He joined theUniversity of Trento, Italy, in 1995, as a professor ofmonetary theory and policy.[4] He retired in 2009.[4]
Leijonhufvud was awardedhonoris causa doctoral degrees by the University of Lund in 1983 and theUniversity Nice Sophia Antipolis in 1996.[4][6]
Leijonhufvud's monetary economics built on the work of the American economistRobert W. Clower.[7] In 1968, at the age of 35, he published a famous scholarly book entitledOn Keynesian Economics and the Economics of Keynes.[3] In the book, he argued thatKeynesian economics had to be re-examined.[3] He made the case thatJohn Hicks'IS/LM (Investment—Saving / Liquidity preference—Money supply) formulation of KeynesGeneral Theory was an inadequate explanation for the "involuntary unemployment" in John Maynard Keynes's writings. Rather, Leijonhufvud's reading of Keynes emphasizes disequilibrium phenomena, which cannot be addressed in the IS/LM framework, as central to Keynes' explanation of unemployment andeconomic depression. Leijonhufvud used this observation as a point of departure to advocate a "cybernetic" approach to macroeconomics, where the algorithm by which prices and quantities adjust is explicitly specified, allowing the dynamic economy to be studied without imposing the standardWalrasian equilibrium concept. In particular, Leijonhufvud advocated formally modelling the process by which information moves through the economy.[8] While the "cybernetic" approach may have failed to gain traction inmainstream economics,[9] it presaged therational expectations revolution that would ultimately supplant the IS/LM model as the dominant paradigm in academic macroeconomics.[10][8][7]
Leijonhufvud wrote also the article "The Wicksell Connection: Variation on a Theme",[11] where he presented theZ-Theory.[12] In another article called "Effective Demand Failures",[13] he presents theCorridor Hypothesis.[8]
In 2006, the Economics Department at UCLA organized a conference in honor of Leijonhufvud's contributions to the department and to economics at large. The conference was organized byRoger Farmer, and contains contributions from Farmer,Lars Peter Hansen,Peter Howitt,David K. Levine,Edmund S. Phelps,Thomas J. Sargent, andKenneth L. Sokoloff, among others. The papers are published in aFestschrift,Macroeconomics in the Small and the Large.[14]
Published in theWestern Economic Journal in 1973, Leijonhufvud's "Life Among the Econ"[15] is a comical article outlining the discipline of economics, and the scholars that practice it, from the perspective of an anthropologist. Professional economists are treated as a tribe known as "the Econ" and ensuing tribal analogues are produced throughout the piece to characterize the group's unusual behavior.[3][15][16] The paper takes a comical yet critical look at the inherent clannish andxenophobic nature of economists and was considered[by whom?] a devastating takedown of economics and economists.[3]
Leijonhufvud's first marriage was to Märta Ising and together they had three children - Carl, Gabriella, and Christina. He married Earlene Craver in 1977.[1] Leijonhufvud died on 2 May 2022. He was aged 88.[3]
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