Dirk H. Ehnts (born 1977) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

heterodox economist. He is one of the leading proponents of

Modern Monetary Theory Modern Monetary Theory or Modern Money Theory (MMT) is a heterodox * * * * * * macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of t ...

in Europe.

Early life and studies

Ehnts was born on 11 April 1977 in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and finished high school there. He studied

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

from 1997 to 2002 at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

and graduated with a diploma. He was

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...

at the

University of Oldenburg The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (german: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg) is a university located in Oldenburg, Germany. It is one of the most important and highly regarded educational facilities in northwestern Germany ...

between 2006 and 2012, from which, in 2008 he was awarded his Economics

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

''.

Career

Ehnts worked as a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at the

Berlin School of Economics and Law The Berlin School of Economics and Law (German: ''Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht''), abbreviated as BSEL, is a public institution of higher education and research founded on 1 April 2009 through the merger of the Berlin School of Economi ...

between 2012 and 2014, where he taught classes on

macroeconomics Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

, and

currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general def ...

. Within that period, he undertook a semester off to work as visiting professor at the Latin America Institute of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. In 2015, he moved to the

Bard College Berlin Bard College Berlin (formerly known as ECLA or European College of Liberal Arts) is a private, non-profit institution of higher education in Berlin, Germany. It was founded as a non-profit association in 1999. Courses are taught in the English lan ...

, while from the end of 2016 to mid-2017 and again since May 2018, he has been teaching at the

Chemnitz University of Technology Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

. In between he taught at Europa-Universität Flensburg as a visiting professor for European economics. Ehnts is a member of the standing field committee History of Economic Thought of the German economists association.

Economic activism

Every summer since 2016 Ehnts has held a course on

at the Summer School of

Maastricht University Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; nl, Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities. In 2021, 22,383 students studied at ...

. In February 2019, he organized the 1st European MMT Conference, while in July 2019, together with Pavlina Tcherneva and Esteban Cruz-Hidalgo, they advocated the introduction of a European

finance ministry A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

(the so-called "Euro Treasury") and a

job guarantee A job guarantee is an economic policy proposal that aims to provide a sustainable solution to inflation and unemployment. Its aim is to create full employment and price stability by having the state promise to hire unemployed workers as an emplo ...

for Europe. The 2nd European MMT conference took place in 2021. Ehnts is also part of the MMT summer school at the University of Poznan in Poland. Ehnts has published numerous articles in specialist journals and daily newspapers. In 2019, he was invited by the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

to provide expert testimony on the

TARGET2 TARGET2 (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System) is the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for the Eurozone, and is available to non-Eurozone countries. It was developed by and is owned by the Eurosystem ...

real-time gross settlement Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems are specialist Electronic funds transfer, funds transfer systems where the transfer of money or securities takes place from one bank to any other bank on a "real-time" and on a "gross (economics), gross" ba ...

system of the

Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...

. He was the first economist there to point out that TARGET assets and liabilities are not debts. In 2021, he appeared as an expert on the finance committee of the Irish Parliament. He currently writes a column at Makroskop titled TranformNation. During the time leading up to the 2019 European elections, he was the main architect of

Socialist Youth Austria The Socialist Youth Austria (german: Sozialistische Jugend Österreich, SJÖ) is a socialist youth organisation in Austria. While not part of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), there is a close relationship between the two organisations ...

's candidate Julia Herr

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

platform. He co-authored the Green New Deal for Europe.

Personal life

Ehnts lives in Berlin with his wife and their two children.

Selected works

* *Ehnts, Dirk and Michael Paetz (2021), COVID-19 and its economic consequences for the Euro Area, Eurasian Economic Review, 11, 227–249 *Ehnts, Dirk (2022), Modern Monetary Theory: Eine Einführung, Wiesbaden: Springer, * *

References

External links

Ehnts publications
in

, as listed in the '' Deutschen Nationalbibliotek''
Personal website
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ehnts, Dirk 1977 births Living people German economists Economics educators Modern monetary theory scholars Post-Keynesian economists University of Göttingen alumni Writers from Bremen (city) German male non-fiction writers