Peter Bofinger
Born (1954-09-18) September 18, 1954 (age 69)
Pforzheim, West Germany
NationalityGerman
Academic career
FieldEconomics
School or
tradition		New Keynesian economics
InfluencesJohn Maynard Keynes
Karl Schiller
Wolfgang Stützel

Peter Bofinger (born September 18, 1954) is a German economist and a former member of the German Council of Economic Experts.

Career

Following his studies, Bofinger worked as staff member to the Council of Economic Experts between 1978 and 1981. From 1984 until 1990, he was an economist at the Bundesbank. Since 1992, Bofinger has been a professor at the University of Würzburg. Between 1997 and 1999, he served as Dean of the university’s Department of Economics. In 1997, he turned down an offer to move to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Nominated by Germany’s trade unions, Bofinger succeeded Jürgen Kromphardt as member of the Council of Economic Experts in 2004.[1] He has in the past oftentimes disagreed with the Council’s conclusions.[2][3] Between 2012 and 2017, he issued 26 of the Council’s 27 minority votes during that period.[4] For example, he was the only member of the Council to advocate the adoption of a minimum wage in Germany: He argues that a minimum wage of €5 is necessary to prevent "wage dumping" and to ensure that full-time employment provides enough income.[5] He does not think that a minimum wage would have a negative impact on employment.[6]

In 2005, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder proposed that Bofinger should replace Otmar Issing on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) the following year;[7] the post instead went to Jürgen Stark. From December 2011 until May 2012, Bofinger served as member of the Jacques Delors Institute’s Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa group, a high-level expert group to reflect on the reform of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union.[8]

Positions

Bofinger criticized the awarding of the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig as "A noble award for a ‘popular misconception’",[9] because the award committee's description of banking ("they receive money from people making deposits and channel it to borrowers"[10]) has been refuted by the Bank of England[11] and the Deutsche Bundesbank.[12]

Selected publications

Other activities

Non-profit organizations

Editorial boards

References

  1. ^ Klaus-Peter Schmid (March 4, 2004), Der allerletzte Keynesianer Die Zeit.
  2. ^ Derek Scally (March 9, 2015), Keynesian odd one out of Germany’s five ‘wise men’ Irish Times.
  3. ^ Claire Jones and Guy Chazan (November 8, 2017), German economy faces risk of overheating, experts warn Financial Times.
  4. ^ Niklas Potrafke (September 14, 2017), Der Letzte der Weisen Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  5. ^ Wirtschaftswoche (26.09.2009): Wirtschaftsweiser Bofinger fordert fünf Euro Mindestlohn
  6. ^ "Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, Jahresgutachten 2006/07, p. 422 (PDF)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  7. ^ Bankers battle for big jobs Politico Europe, May 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Group Jacques Delors Institute.
  9. ^ Bofinger, Peter (2022-10-17). "A noble award for a 'popular misconception'". Social Europe. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  10. ^ Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2022). "The laureates explained the central role of banks in financial crises" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  11. ^ "Money creation in the modern economy". www.bankofengland.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  12. ^ Deutsche Bundesbank, Monthly Report April 13 (2017). "The role of banks, non- banks and the central bank in the money creation process" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-10-22.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Einsetzung eines Wirtschaftspolitischen Beirats Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , press release of March 23, 2020.
  14. ^ Senate Deutsche Industrieforschungsgemeinschaft Konrad Zuse.
  15. ^ Peter Bofinger Progressive Economy.
  16. ^ Scientific Advisory Board Wirtschaftsdienst.

Further reading

External links

Keynesians
German Council of Economic Experts
Authority control databases
Categories