At the annual meeting of the Verein for Socialpolitik in Graz, the Gustav Stolper Prize has been awarded to Hans-Werner Sinn.
The award honours Sinn as a “top economist” and mentions his more than 80 articles in refereed journals, including publications in the American Economic Review and in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Few German economists have a more successful publishing record. In particular his nucleus theory on the foundation of enterprises and his analysis of taxation effects on the financing decisions of enterprises were singled out for the award. Sinn is also lauded for recently turning his attention to climate change, linking up with his previous research on environmental and resource theory from the 1980s. Measured by the number of citations by international economist colleagues, as documented in the scientific database Repec, Sinn headed the citation list of German economists, in 2006. His book Cold Start, which he wrote together with his wife Gerlinde, is listed as one of Sinn’s major achievements. His inimitable strength lies in addressing major economic-policy problems and demonstrating possible solutions.
Already last year, Sinn was honoured by the Verein für Socialpolitik for his academic life work by having been given the privilege of delivering the Von Thünen Lecture.
The Verein für Socialpolitik is the association of German-speaking economists and social scientists. With the Gustav Stolper Prize, it honours outstanding researchers that have substantially influenced public debates by communicating economic thought and theories to general audiences and that have made major contributions to the understanding and solution of economic problems. Gustav Stolper was an Austrian economist who was active in Berlin between the wars and had a strong influence on economic policy. He later emigrated to the US, achieving international renown there as well. He wrote numerous articles and books on German economic policy, founding, among other things, the journal Der Volkswirt which later became the business weekly, WirtschaftsWoche. The Gustav Stolper Prize winner is selected after a screening process by a majority vote of the ca. 3,000 members of the association. The price is awarded annually during the meeting of the Verein für Socialpolitik and amounts to EUR 5000. The year it was introduced, 2007, it was awarded to the Swiss economist, Bruno S. Frey.
