Peter Bofinger is one of Germany’s most distinguished economists. He was a member of the German Council of Economic Experts (2004-2019) and is a senior professor of economics at the University of Würzburg.
As early as 1978, he was a research assistant on the staff of the German Council of Economic Experts. Peter Bofinger qualified as a professor at the Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Saarbrücken in 1990 at the age of 36. Two years later, he became a full professor at the University of Würzburg, where he held the position of First Vice President from October 2003 to September 2004. In March 2004, on the recommendation of the trade unions, the Federal President appoints him as an economic expert.
Peter Bofinger Lecture Topics
- The digitalisation of the monetary system: cryptocurrencies – the money of the future?
- The debt brake: safety valve or brake on innovation?
- Deflation: A threat to our prosperity?
- The role of the financial system in economic models
- Germany and the car industry: What is the future development?
- Endless debt: a threat to our money?
- China, USA & Europe – How can trade adapt to change?
Prof Peter Bofinger is regarded as the leading representative of demand-oriented economic policy in Germany. He is one of the few German economists to speak out against the core demands of Agenda 2010 and the Hartz reforms, which he sees as further weakening domestic demand. Germany finances its social systems too little through direct and indirect taxes and instead too one-sidedly through non-wage labour costs, which makes the production factor of labour disproportionately more expensive.
Peter Bofinger therefore proposes structural reforms, such as the introduction of a negative income tax and the reduction of non-wage labour costs. He is also an advocate of the so-called per capita flat rate in the healthcare system.
Peter Bofinger’s research focusses on the reform of the international financial system and the euro crisis, new economic thinking and managed floats. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research, the Society for Economic and Social Sciences (Verein für Sozialpolitik) and the Board of the Irving Fisher Society for Economic and Monetary Affairs.