Hans-Werner Sinn has begun his last week at work as President of the Ifo Institute. On Thursday 31 March Sinn will retire as Ifo President after 17 years of service in one of Europe's most important economic research institutes. “I feel like a traveller who has arrived at the inn and can lay down his backpack,” he said on Tuesday in Munich. “And I am looking forward to a life-long sabbatical to do whatever research I like.” Sinn will retain an office at the Ifo Institute. Speaking of his successor Clemens Fuest, Sinn said: “I cannot imagine anybody who would be better for the job. I am delighted that he has accepted the position. Clemens is an excellent and extremely successful economist, who has published in the best peer-reviewed journals. As a public finance expert, he has the overview of all subsections of economics that is re-quired in such a role.”
Commenting on his new position, Fuest said: “I am very much looking forward to taking on this exciting task. Ifo is very well-positioned as an institute. One of its strengths is its close cooperation with the University of Munich. Its international network is also highly impressive. I look forward to getting to know my new colleagues at Ifo better.”
On Friday 1 April 2016 Fuest will take over as President of the Ifo Institute. At the same time he will take over Sinn’s chair of economics and public finance at the University of Munich, as head of the Center for Economic Studies (CES) and as managing director of the joint subsidiary CESifo GmbH, which coordinates one of the world’s most important networks of economists with over 1,200 members.
Fuest has been President of the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) in Mannheim since 2013 and is also a professor there. He studied economics in Bochum and Mannheim and obtained his PhD entitled: “A Fiscal Constitution for the European Union” from the University of Cologne in 1994. This was followed in 2001 by his habilitation in Munich, which explored the link between fiscal policy and unemployment. In the same year he was made a professor of political economy at the University of Cologne. From 2008 to 2013 Fuest was professor of business taxation and Re-search Director at the Centre for Business Taxation at the University of Oxford.
On the occasion of Hans-Werner Sinn’s retirement as President of the Ifo Institute, 111 prominent personalities from industry, politics, academia and the media have proved their thoughts on “Hans-Werner Sinn and 25 years of German economic policy” (in German). The book was edited by Gabriel Felbermayr, Meinhard Knoche and Ludger Woessmann and published by Hanser Verlag in Munich.
Further details under: www.ifo.de/w/3hJpwNLRB
Enclosure: Photo of Sinn and Fuest at the University of Munich; Source: Romy Vinogradova, Ifo.
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