Professors Johanna Rickne and Olle Folke have been awarded the 2023 Assar Lindbeck Medal for their innovative research on gender equality and political economy. Rickne is an affiliated professor at the Department of Economics and House of Governance and Public Policy at SSE and professor at the Swedish Institute for Social Research at SU, while Folke is a political science professor at Uppsala University.

Their research, focused on politicians' backgrounds and characteristics, utilizes unique data on Swedish election candidates linked to registry data, revealing important patterns. This approach has inspired other researchers and contributed to a new research program on political selection, not only in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries but also internationally.

In the spirit of Assar Lindbeck, Folke and Rickne have closely connected their research to politics, discussing their findings in popular science formats. Their studies have received coverage from renowned international media outlets, including CNN, Le Monde, New York Times, and The Economist, as well as in various Swedish newspapers and media platforms.