Nima Sanandaji

Nima Sanandaji ( fa, نیما سنندجی; born June 30, 1981) is a center-right liberal-conservative Iranian-Swedish social and natural researcher. As of 2023, he has above 400 scientific mentions related to economics, social sciences, history, biotechnology, polymer technology, and physical chemistry. He has published over 30 books on innovation, entrepreneurship, women’s career opportunities,crime prevention, preventive social work, the history of enterprise, and the Nordic welfare states.

Sanandaji is the president of the pro-business think tank European Centre for Entrepreneurship and Policy Reform. He is a co-founder of the Stockholm-based pro-market think tank Captus, which he headed as CEO for several years until 2011. He has conducted research in biochemistry, physical chemistry and polymer technology at Chalmers University of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Cambridge University and holds two PhDs from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. :sv:Nima Sanandaji He was written or cooperated with various liberal-conservative think tanks, such as Timbro, Institute of Economic Affairs, Cato Institute, and Centre for Policy Studies.

His idea of market economy and a unique culture rather than socialism being the root of the Nordic model of the Welfare State inspired a chapter in the 2019 Economic Report of the President, published by the US White House under the conservative administration of Donald J. Trump.

Background

Sanandaji was born to middle-class ethnic Kurdish parents in Tehran. His parents came to Sweden from Iran in 1989. Tracing their roots to the village of Kilaneh, the Sanandaji family, which since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 have moved to Europe and the United States, were the dominant land and farm owners in Iranian Kurdistan. He has a Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology in polymer engineering. Sanandaji has previously been chairman of the Free Moderate Student League and the Swedish-American Association, both based in Gothenburg.

Authorship

Sanandaji was one of the authors of the Timbro report "Welcome to Sweden! On political bias in the SFI literature, Swedish for immigrants" which criticized the Swedish for immigrants training for having a politicized message in favor of the Social Democrats. He has published more than twenty books, mostly in Swedish, on policy issues such as women's career opportunities, integration, entrepreneurship and reforms to encourage innovation in the provision of public services.

Sanandaji's first English book is ''Renaissance for Reforms'', which was written with Professor Stefan Fölster. The book was published in 2014 in cooperation with the Swedish Timbro and the United Kingdom-based think tank Institute of Economic Affairs. By analyzing modern democracies since the mid-1990s, the authors question the idea that reformist governments seldom are re-elected. Rather, they show that the governments that introduce market reforms are more likely to be re-elected. The book has gained the attention of media and thinktanks in a number of countries, including Sweden, Austria, Norway, the United Kingdom and Bulgaria.

In 2014, Sanandaji published the book ''SuperEntrepreneurs'' co-authored with his brother Tino Sanandaji, an economist. The book examines the background of the more than a thousand individuals worldwide who have amassed more than $1 billion through entrepreneurship and examines the conditions that foster entrepreneurship. On its release, ''SuperEntrepreneurs'' gained massive international attention. It was the front page story of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and independently also reported by ''The Times'', and NBC News. A range of international media followed up on these initial reports.

NBC quoted ''SuperEntrepreneurs'': "The results indicate the American Dream – the notion that individuals can rise to the top through effort, luck, and genius – is not yet dead. Self-made billionaire entrepreneurs have created millions of jobs, billions of dollars in private wealth, and probably trillions of dollars of value for society".

Richard Branson, the entrepreneur behind Virgin, criticized ''SuperEntrepreneurs'' for not emphasizing the need for public support of entrepreneurs. Branson wrote on his blog: "I am a big believer in the power of entrepreneurship as a key driver of economic growth, job creation, and innovation. However, if we want more successful entrepreneurs, they need to be supported by long-term thinking and creative support structures".

Has he also written contributions for the anthologies ''Self-Control or State Control? You Decide'' by Dr. Tom G. Palmer and ''A U-Turn on the Road to Serfdom'' by Grover G. Nordquist.

Selected bibliography in English

* ''Innate Confinement Effects in PCL Oligomers as a Route to Confined Space Crystallisation'' (2009). Licentiate thesis at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
* ''The Single Income Tax Final report of the 2020 Tax Commission'' (2012). Taxpayers Alliance. Contributed alongside Tino Sanandaji and Arvid Malm regarding the correlation between income gaps, poverty and social outcome.
* ''Different paths to explore confined crystallization of PCL'' (2013). Doctorate thesis at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
* ''Renaissance for Reforms'' (2014). Institute of Economic Affairs/Timbro. Co-authored by Stefan Fölster.
* ''SuperEntrepreneurs'' (2014). Center for Policy Studies. Co-authored by Tino Sanandaji.
* ''The Spending Plan'' (2015). Taxpayers Alliance. Sanandaji contributed two chapters.
* ''Scandinavian Unexceptionalism: Culture, Markets and the Failure of Third-Way Socialism'' (2015). Paperback.
* ''The Nordic Gender Equality Paradox'' (2016). Timbro.
* ''Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism'' (2016). Paperback.
* ''The Birthplace of Capitalism – The Middle East'' (2018). Timbro.

''Scandinavian Unexceptionalism''

In his book '' Scandinavian Unexceptionalism'', Sanandaji promotes the idea that unique norms and free markets can explain the economic and social success of Scandinavia rather than large welfare states. In June 2015, the book was published by the British think tank Institute of Economic Affairs

and was also released in Stockholm in co-operation with the think tank Timbro. The foreword is written by American libertarian author Tom Palmer.

In the book, Sanandaji argues that particularly the left has long praised Scandinavian countries for their high levels of welfare provision and admirable societal outcomes. Although Scandinavian countries are indeed successful, the author makes the case that this success pre-dates the welfare state. According to Sanandaji, Scandinavians became successful by combining a culture with strong emphasis on individual responsibility with economic freedom. This can also explain why Scandinavian Americans, who live outside Nordic welfare states, have low poverty levels and high levels of prosperity.

The book has been cited in more than a hundred international publications, including ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ABC, ''Financial Post'', ''The New York Post'', Taiwanese publication ''Tech Finance News'', ''Chicago Tribune'' and ''Forbes''. ''The Economist'' also cited the findings of the book that Nordic-Americans are considerably more prosperous than their cousins in the Nordics:

''Scandinavian Unexceptionalism'' has been translated to Polish, titled ''Mit Skandynawii''. Spanish translation has been released in South and Central America as well as Spain, with a foreword from Mauricio Rojas, associate professor of economic history at Lund University

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