Assar Lindbeck, who died on 28 August, aged 90, was for decades Sweden's leading economist. As a research entrepreneur, he developed the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) at Stockholm University to an internationally prominent research institution, he was instrumental in creating the Nobel Prize in economics, and he reformed and internationalised the country’s economics PhD teaching. His own research spanned monetary and fiscal policy, the welfare state, the importance of social norms and the labour market – and he also played a key role in both Swedish and international public debates on these issues.