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 The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. Nominated by Germany’s trade unions, Bofinger succeeded Jürgen Kromphardt as member of the Council of Economic Experts in 2004. He has in the past oftentimes disagreed with the Council’s conclusions. Between 2012 and 2017, he issued 26 of the Council’s 27 minority votes during that period. For example, he was the only member of the Council to advocate the adoption of a

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

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. He does not think that a minimum wage would have a negative impact on employment. In 2005,

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Gerhard Schröder proposed that Bofinger should replace Otmar Issing on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) the following year; the post instead went to Jürgen Stark. From December 2011 until May 2012, Bofinger served as member of the

Jacques Delors Institute The Jacques Delors Institute (french: Institut Jacques Delors), which also uses the name ''Notre Europe'' (French for "Our Europe"), is an independent think tank based in Paris. Founded in 1996 by Jacques Delors, it aims to "think a united Europ ...

’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 The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages. There are three stages of the EMU, each of which consists of progr ...

Positions

Bofinger criticized the awarding of the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to

Ben Bernanke Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Fed, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. Durin ...

, Douglas Diamond and

Philip Dybvig Philip Hallen Dybvig (born May 22, 1955) is an American economist. He is the Boatmen's Bancshares Professor of Banking and Finance at the Olin Business School of Washington University in St. Louis. Career Dybvig specializes in asset pricing, ba ...

as "A noble award for a ‘popular misconception’", because the award committee's description of banking ("they receive money from people making deposits and channel it to borrowers") has been refuted by the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

and the

Deutsche Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (), literally "German Federal Bank", is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the most ...

Selected publications

* * * * *

Other activities

Non-profit organizations

* Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Advisory Board on Economic Policy (since 2020) * European Council on Foreign Relations, Member of the Board * Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), Member of the Council on the Euro Zone Crisis (ICEC) * Deutsche Industrieforschungsgemeinschaft Konrad Zuse, Member of the Senate * Progressive Economy, Member of the Scientific Advisory Board * '' Verein für Socialpolitik'', Member of the Committee on Monetary Policy

Editorial boards

* ''International Journal of Economics and Finance'' (IJEF), Member of the Board of Editors * '' Wirtschaftsdienst'', Member of the Scientific Advisory BoardScientific Advisory Board
'' Wirtschaftsdienst''.

References

External links

Peter Bofinger's Curriculum Vitae
at the University of Würzburg {{DEFAULTSORT:Bofinger, Peter 1954 births Living people German economists Keynesians