About the centre

The Assar Lindbeck Centre is organized under the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES). It was established on the basis of the legacy of one of Sweden’s most influential economists, Professor Assar Lindbeck. The creation of the Center was made possible through a major grant from the Handelsbanken Research Foundations.

The Centre is intended to honor Assar Lindbeck’s scholarly legacy by promoting research of the highest international quality in areas close to his interests, such as labor economics, institutions, and economic policy. By supporting new research projects, collaborations, and meeting places for researchers, the Centre seeks to contribute to the open and policy-relevant economic research that characterized Lindbeck’s work.

The Assar Lindbeck Centre aims to strengthen Stockholm University’s position as an internationally leading institution in economic research and as a nationally leading actor in fulfilling the “third mission.” This refers to universities’ statutory responsibility to provide advice to policymakers and the general public on important societal issues. An important task of the Centre is to help early-career researchers carry out the third mission through mentoring and workshops together with individuals active outside the university. The focus should be on dialogue rather than one-way dissemination of knowledge. High-quality research can and should contribute to societal development. This requires researchers who are willing and courageous enough to engage in public debate.

Assar Lindbeck (born 26 January 1930 in Umeå, died 28 August 2020 in Stockholm) was one of Sweden’s most influential economists and a central figure in Swedish and international economics. He grew up in a family where social issues early shaped his interests and studied, among other subjects, political science, economics, sociology, and statistics at Uppsala University. After earning his PhD in 1963, he became a professor and later held the A. O. Wallenberg Professorship in Economics. From 1971 to 1995, he served as Director of the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) at Stockholm University, where he built a strong research environment.

Lindbeck was a versatile scholar who made significant contributions to monetary theory, labor market dynamics, the functioning of the welfare state, and economic policy. He was also an active public intellectual and participated in economic policy debates in Sweden for several decades. During the economic crisis of the 1990s, he chaired the government’s Economic Commission—often referred to as the Lindbeck Commission—which proposed extensive reforms to strengthen Sweden’s economic competitiveness.

Beyond his research, Lindbeck was deeply engaged in academic and professional communities: he was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, chaired the editorial board of Ekonomisk Debatt from its founding in 1973 until 2020, and supported younger economists by inspiring the establishment of the Assar Lindbeck Medal.

Lindbeck has been described as a research entrepreneur and a mentor to several generations of economists, and his work has had a lasting influence on Swedish economics and economic debate.

Director

Professor John Hassler

Deputy Director

Professor Tessa Bold

John Hassler, IIES (Director)
Tessa Bold, IIES (Deputy Director)
Ilinca Benson, SNS (Chair)
Martina Stenström, EFN
Martin Blåvarg, Handelsbanken
Martin Flodén, Department of Economics at Stockholm University
Katarina Barrling, Uppsala University
Edvin Ahlander, IIES (Student Representative)

Last updated: 2026-06-02

Source: Assar Lindbeck Centre

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