Axel Leijonhufvud (1933–2022) was a Swedish economist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and professor at the University of Trento, Italy. He focused his studies on macroeconomic monetary theory.

Axel earned an MA from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He moved to the University of California at Los Angeles in 1964 and was named Full Professor in 1971, serving repeatedly as Chairman of the Economics Department. In 1991, he started the Center for Computable Economics at UCLA and remained its Director until 1997. In 1995 he was appointed Professor of Monetary Theory and Policy at the University of Trento, Italy. At Trento, he organised a program in Adaptive Economic Dynamics which offered annual Summer Schools for Ph.D. students and postdocs.