Thomas Straubhaar

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Thomas Straubhaar at the Leipzig Book Fair 2017

Thomas Straubhaar (born August 2, 1957 in Unterseen , Canton of Bern ) is a Swiss economist and migration researcher . He is Professor for International Economic Relations at the University of Hamburg .

Life

Straubhaar graduated in 1981 the study of economics with a minor in Operations Research and Mathematics at the University of Bern with the Lic. Rer. pole. from. From 1981 to 1989 he was an assistant at the local economics institute. 1983 took place Promotion at Egon Tuchtfeldt to Dr. rer. pole. and in 1986 the habilitation with the thesis On the Economics of International Labor Migration . In the meantime he did research at the University of California, Berkeley . In 1989/90 he was a lecturer in the postgraduate course in international economic relations at the University of Konstanz and from 1989 to 1992 lecturer in economic policy at the University of Basel . In 1991/92 he also worked as a deputy at the chair for economic policy at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau .

In 1992 Straubhaar was appointed professor of economics at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg . Since 1999 he has been Professor of International Economic Relations at the University of Hamburg and was also President of the Hamburg World Economic Archives (HWWA), which closed in 2006 . In 2005 Straubhaar became director of the then newly founded Hamburg World Economic Institute (HWWI). Straubhaar announced in 2013 that it would resign from this position in September 2014. He also gives regular lectures at the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration . From 2008 to 2011 he was a member of the Expert Council of German Foundations for Integration and Migration .

Straubhaar is an ambassador for the New Social Market Economy initiative . He is one of the trustees of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (since 1994 Liaison Officer ) and the HASPA financial holding on is the board of the Körber Foundation and the Edmund Siemers Foundation and a member of the DB Advisory Board. Since 2013 he has been a Policy Fellow of the Institute for the Future of Work . Straubhaar is also a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (Acatech) . He is a member of the group advisory board of Deutsche Bahn .

He is the initiator of the Pro Bürgergeld association and initiated the Hamburg appeal in 2005 together with Bernd Lucke and Michael Funke . Since 2014 he has been deputy chairman of the foundation - CLUB OF HAMBURG. He is a columnist for WeltN24 .

Straubhaar is married and has three children.

Economic positions

Basic income

In May 2016 Straubhaar published his view of a (contemporary) basic income in Die Welt and Die Zeit - which is based on:

  • modern social system
  • integrated tax transfer model
  • with value added tax

is based. He wrote: A social security system that is one-sidedly based on contributions from wage income is an anachronism from the era of industrialization and the unbroken lifelong employment history, when the man's earned income was the most important source of family income. Individualization has called the traditional understanding of roles and the solidarity of the family into question. Today's world of work causes disruptions and requires time out to reorient. A modern social system must do justice to both changes. And a shift in the financing of social security from wage contributions to a value added tax fulfills exactly this requirement ... No other model [than that of the basic income] takes into account both the consequences of digitization and the effects of individualization as an integrated tax transfer model ... The higher the basic income , the higher the tax rates have to be for financing and the lower the work incentives should remain. The rules of economics work that easily - even in the age of digitization and with a basic income. He did not give further details, or whether someone is working on such a comprehensive model.

In February 2016, he rejected the Swiss people's initiative on basic income launched by the Basic Income Initiative on the grounds that only a low basic income, which only secures the existence and thereby reduces the duplication of bureaucracy in the social services, can work. However, proponents in Switzerland suggested a high basic income of CHF 2500 per month, which would entail high taxes. According to Straubhaar, this is too much of a risk and means a system change with so many key issues that remain open, including with regard to financing. An unconditional basic income is absolutely appropriate to a liberal society, it supports the weaker. Ur-liberal, if transfers are not linked to conditions, does not prescribe a certain behavior - that is why the liberal economist Milton Friedman also propagated the negative income tax - and nothing else is the unconditional basic income. The amount of the basic income should only cover the subsistence level, in Germany for example € 7500 per adult per year. The subsistence level is already guaranteed for everyone through social assistance. Everything beyond that is left to your own responsibility . In Germany, a low basic income with a correspondingly low tax rate makes work worthwhile again. Regarding the national statutory security in Germany through the minimum wage or protection against dismissal, he said: No, this protection is no longer needed [there after the introduction of a basic income] . And that's where he sees a difference between Germany and Switzerland. Switzerland has no protection against dismissal and no minimum wage, but a comparatively liberal labor market. That is why I am not campaigning for the basic income in Switzerland.

Corona crisis

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic , Straubhaar proposed in an article in the daily newspaper Die Welt on March 16, 2020 that the strategy to combat the spread of infection should be subjected to an economic perspective. Accordingly, it makes sense to infect all young, active and healthy people at once in a controlled manner and at the same time to isolate all older, sick or other people at risk at the same time. This leaves the least economic damage and at the same time helps to slow down the spread of the pathogen at the population level. The UK government had initiated exactly this measure in their national territory a few days earlier, but also found on March 16, 2020 that the procedure leads to enormous mortality and that social distancing by individuals is more effective. Criticism of Straubhaar's contribution came from, among others, Rüdiger Bachmann , who accused him of not including findings from other disciplines such as virology and epidemiology.

Awards

Straubhaar has received several scholarships (including from the Swiss National Science Foundation and ZEIT ) and has been awarded the following prizes:

Fonts (selection)

  • Labor migration and balance of payments. An empirical study using the example of remittances to Greece, Portugal, Spain and Turkey (= Bern contributions to political economy . Volume 45). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1983, ISBN 3-258-03286-6 .
  • with Klaus M. Leisinger and Egon Tuchtfeldt: Studies on Development Economics (= socio-economic research . Volume 20). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1986, ISBN 3-258-03665-9 .
  • On the economics of international labor migration (= contributions to economic policy . Volume 49). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1988, ISBN 3-258-04001-X .
  • with Silvio Borner and Aymo Brunetti : Schweiz-AG. From a special case to a renovation case? 3. Edition. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-85823-305-6 .
  • with Manfred Winz: Reform of the education system. Controversial aspects from an economic point of view (= socio-economic research . Volume 27). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1992, ISBN 3-258-04693-X .
  • with Peter A. Fischer: Economic integration and migration in a common market. 40 years of experience in the Nordic labor market (= contributions to economic policy . Volume 59). Haupt, Bern u. a. 1994, ISBN 3-258-04989-0 .
  • with Silvio Borner: Switzerland on its own . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-85823-490-7 .
  • Migration in the 21st century (= contributions to the theory of order and policy . Volume 167). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-16-147717-0 .
  • with Rainer Winkelmann (Ed.): The European Reform Logjam and the Economics of Reform . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-428-11659-3 .
  • with Gunnar Geyer, Heinz Locher, Jochen Pimpertz and Henning Vöpel: Growth and employment in the healthcare sector. Employment effects of a modern health insurance system (= contributions to health management . Volume 14). Nomos, Baden-Baden 2006, ISBN 3-8329-1970-8 .
  • with Michael Hüther : The perceived injustice. Why we have to endure inequality if we want freedom . Econ, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-430-30036-0 .
  • The downfall has been canceled: Against the myths of demographic change. edition Körber Foundation, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-89684-174-2 .
  • Radically just: How the unconditional basic income is revolutionizing the welfare state. Edition Körber, Hamburg 2017.
  • with Franz Wauschkuhn : Shipping Cycles . Osburg Verlag, December 2018. ISBN 978-3-95510-186-2
  • The hour of the optimists: This is how the economy of the future will work. Edition Körber, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-89684-271-8 .

Web links

Libraries:

Working Papers:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Economic researcher Straubhaar leaves Germany . In: Welt Online. 22nd August 2013.
  2. ↑ Board of Trustees | Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom . In: Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom . ( freiheit.org [accessed July 13, 2018]).
  3. ^ Hamburger Abendblatt- Hamburg: Club of Hamburg already has more than 160 members. October 1, 2014, accessed on January 25, 2019 (German).
  4. ↑ Vita of Thomas Straubhaar , WeltN24. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ Thomas Straubhaar: Basic Income: Who Would Like to Work? In: The time . 2nd June 2016
  6. ↑ Why we need an unconditional basic income . In: The world . 17th May 2016
  7. ↑ Economist Thomas Straubhaar: "Take steam out of the refugee debate" - How countries could compete for refugee care and why he sees an unconditional basic income for Germany - not Switzerland - Interview Christoph Eisenring (Berlin), NZZ 27.2.16
  8. ↑ Thomas Straubhaar: Coronavirus: Controlled infection is the best strategy . In: THE WORLD . March 16, 2020 ( welt.de [accessed March 17, 2020]).
  9. ↑ Alex Wickham: The UK Only Realized “In The Last Few Days” That Its Coronavirus Strategy Would “Likely Result In Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths”. Retrieved March 17, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ https://uebermedien.de/48856/von-welt-experten-und- Wirklichen-fachleuten /. In: Übermedien. May 5, 2020, accessed on May 9, 2020 (German).
  11. ↑ Shipping Cycles . Retrieved April 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Straubhaar, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss economist and President of the Hamburg World Economic Institute
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd August 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Unterseen , Canton of Bern