Staffan Burenstam Linder


Hans Martin Staffan Burenstam Linder was a Swedish economist and conservative politician. He was Swedish Minister for Trade from 1976–78 and from 1979-81.

Background

He was the son of forester Martin Linder and of Marianne Linder, née Burenstam. In 1956 he married Marie-Thérèse Dyrssen, who was headmaster of Enskilda Gymnasiet from 1989-2003.
As an adult, Staffan Linder began to use the name Burenstam to preserve this old name of nobility, whose last male bearer, his grandfather Fredrik Burenstam, had died without a male heir in 1949. In the scholarly world, Burenstam Linder is known under the name Linder. It wasn't till the 1980s that his family legally changed their name to Burenstam Linder.

Academic career

During his time as a PhD candidate, he was mainly supervised by Bertil Ohlin. His dissertation in 1961, An Essay on Trade and Transformation, initiated a new model of international trade based on the demand pattern.
Linder was a professor of International economics at the Stockholm School of Economics from 1974 onwards, as well as the school's rector from 1986 to 1995.
He also was a visiting professor at Columbia University from 1962 to 1963, Yale University in 1966, and Stanford University from 1983 to 1984. He received an honorary doctorate from the Université catholique de Louvain. He was also an economic advisor at Stockholms Enskilda Bank from 1965-75. In the period 1993-1995, Burenstam Linder chaired the Steering Committee of the EuroFaculty, which included the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga as he founded in 1994.

Political career

Burenstam Linder had long been a key figure in the Moderate Party. There were several times when people thought he would take the office of party leader, especially during the late 1970s, when many thought he should succeed Gösta Bohman.
His political positions include Member of Parliament 1969-86, Vice Leader of the Moderate Party 1970-81, Trade Minister 1976-78 and 1979–81, Appointed Agent of Sveriges Riksbank 1991-1994 and Member of the European Parliament from 1995-2000.

Publications