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. In 1990, at the age of 36, he habilitated at the Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Saarbrücken. Two years later, he became a full professor at the University of Würzburg, where he held the post of First Vice President from October 2003 to September 2004. In March 2004, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany appoints him as an economic expert on the recommendation of the trade unions.

Peter Bofinger Lecture Topics

• Cryptocurrencies – the money of the future?
• What is actually behind Bitcoin?
• Deflation: a threat to our prosperity?
• No end to the low-interest phase: are we saving ourselves to death?
• Is Germany facing a real estate bubble?
• Debt without end: danger for our money?
• Will the debt explosion be followed by a long-lasting stagnation of the global economy?

Peter Bofinger is considered 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, in which he sees a further weakening of domestic demand. He argues that Germany finances its social security systems too little through direct and indirect taxes and instead too one-sidedly through non-wage labor costs, which makes labor disproportionately more expensive as a production factor. Bofinger therefore proposes structural reforms, such as the introduction of a negative income tax and the reduction of non-wage labor costs. He is also an advocate of the so-called capitation fee in the healthcare system.

Peter Bofinger’s research focuses on the reform of the international financial system and the euro crisis, on New Economic Thinking and managed floatings. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research, of the Society for Economic and Social Sciences (Verein für Sozialpolitik), and a board member of the Irving Fisher Society for Economic and Monetary Affairs.