Axel Leijonhufvud: Grateful remembrances from the South

By Daniel Heymann

I first heard about Axel from a colleague in Argentina who had read the Spanish version of the book on Keynes and the Keynesians. I was then (late seventies) working in Buenos Aires at ECLAC (the UN´s Economic Commission for Latin America) on Macro issues, trying to understand the volatility of the country´s economy, with the analytical toolkit I had received in my undergraduate studies, a useful but limited mixture of the Keynesian analysis of the time and works of the Latin American Structuralism. Since my friend had awakened my curiosity, I got the book to read in summer holidays. Although much of the discussion went over my head, I felt struck by the depth and pertinence of the argument. Here was somebody from the very center of the academic world posing the right questions on how the economic system may or may not work effectively in coordinating the activities of myriads of agents trying to do their own thing in interaction with the others. Questions that resonated for someone living in a country with inflation well above 100% and sharp oscillations in real activity.

These were tough times in Argentina. With a prospect of losing my job, we (my wife Cristina and myself) decided to go abroad for graduate studies. In my ignorance of common practices in the US, after looking for Axel´s affiliation I applied to a single university, UCLA.

For some reason I was admitted, with a scholarship. So, we packed and went. Soon, I had an additional lucky break: a neighbor who was also entering the Econ program knew about the “notional seminar” that Axel and Bob Clower were running besides the formal department meeting and got me to attend. As it happened, Axel was working on an important paper, the “Wicksell Connection”, and brought it to discuss at the seminar. Students were encouraged, or rather urged to participate in the conversation. The most I could think of was to offer some remarks around the theme “In the Argentine case…”, which people took politely but, understandably with little excitement. However, Axel got interested, and invited me to think more closely about the macro features of unstable economies like Argentina, with the notion that the analysis of “pathological” instances could inform about aspects of the economy that may remain hidden when observing cases in more tranquil conditions. 

At that time, I could also observe Axel as a teacher. His lectures were often tours de force, by someone capable of keeping several lines of reasoning in the air without losing track of his arguments while often abstaining from the restrictive help of a formal framework, and using the natural language as a tool to signal nuances and delineate the ranges of validity of propositions.   

Axel tutored me in my dissertation work, on (no surprise) economic instability, with applications to the Argentine case.  Axel kept an interest in the complicated behavior of the economy and visited the country on several occasions. His disposition to interact with the numerous local colleagues who wished to talk to him was an instance of his generosity and good will. 

I had the privilege of collaborating with Axel on the High Inflation book. I also participated in the Trento Summer School on Macro matters, an activity which ran for near twenty years. This has been a remarkable set of meetings where students and faculty lived full-time for a couple of weeks in an agreeable semi-rural environment, which encouraged informal talks about the lectures and about the students´ own research projects. The setup was a typical Axelian design: plenty of work but not induced by negative incentives, but by the excitement of conversing on topics of common interest. 

Axel remained for me over the years a prime professional and personal reference, as a splendid example of rectitude without solemnity or grand gestures, a practitioner of noblesse oblige minus the arrogance that may go with it. 

An extraordinary person has left us. He deserves to be remembered with admiration and affection.