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Carl Assar Eugén Lindbeck (26 January 1930 – 28 August 2020) was a Swedish professor of economics at Stockholm University and at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Lindbeck was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...
, and previously chaired the Academy's prize committee for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was the first Swede to be appointed a foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, and one of only three Swedes ever. Lindbeck has done research on unemployment (e.g. the insider-outsider theory of employment), the welfare state (including the effect of changing social norms and its interaction with economic incentives), and China's reformed economy. Lindbeck received a
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
from Stockholm University in 1963 with the doctoral thesis ''A study in monetary analysis''. Assar Lindbeck also has a theory on self-destructive welfare state dynamics, in which the welfare system erodes norms relating to work and responsibility: change in the work ethic is related to a rising dependence on welfare state institutions. It was on the basis of this viewpoint that he promoted the economic theories of conservative American theorist
James McGill Buchanan James McGill Buchanan Jr. (; October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013) was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory originally outlined in his most famous work co-authored with Gordon Tullock in 1962, ''The Calculus of Consen ...
. It is said that it was through Lindbeck's influence at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that Buchanan was awarded the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, a decision which was criticized by the British writer and columnist
George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is a British writer known for his environmental and political activism. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and is the author of a number of books. Monbiot grew up in Oxfordsh ...
in 2017. He is also attributed to authoring two empirical papers surrounding sick leave. He jointly worked with Mårten Palme and Mats Persson to study how local variation occurs in regards to sick leave. He also wrote upon the relationship between labor security legislation and sick leave insurance. Lindbeck previously headed the
Institute for International Economic Studies The Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) is a Swedish research institute at Stockholm University, founded in the early 1960s. The main objective is to produce outstanding research for publication in leading international journals. The ...
at Stockholm University, Sweden. In 1992–1993 he headed the so-called "Lindbeck Commission", which was appointed by the
Government of Sweden The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv, Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Ministerappointed and dismissed by the Speaker of the ...
to propose reforms in light of the then-ongoing economic crisis. Lindbeck also sat as a fellow at CESifo in Munich and at the Kiel Institute of World Economics. Lindbeck criticized the Swedish rent control system beginning in the 1960s. This resulted in one of his most famous quotes: “In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.”


Bibliography

* ''The housing shortage. A study of the price system in the housing market'' (with och Ingemar Ståhl), Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, 1963. * ''The Insider-Outsider Theory of Employment and Unemployment'', (with Dennis Snower) MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988. * ''The Swedish Experiment'', SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 1997.


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Curriculum Vitæ - Assar Lindbeck
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindbeck, Assar 1930 births 2020 deaths Stockholm University alumni Swedish artists Fellows of the Econometric Society Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Umeå 20th-century Swedish economists 21st-century Swedish economists