Friday, 25 April 2008, Munich Residence, Max-Joseph-Saal
Many congratulations to Hans-Werner Sinn on his reaching the age of 60. The ‘enfant terrible’ of German economics has finally become the old Sage.
I first met Hans-Werner thirty years ago when the National Bureau of Economic Research set-up a project to calculate and compare effective tax rates on capital income in four advanced industrial economies. The idea was partly to remind Americans that there is another world – or at least a tax system – out there, and also to remind all policy makers that they can learn much from what is happening elsewhere. The results were striking. Capital income tax rates varied enormously according to the particular project in which savings had been invested. The type of asset, industry, and method of finance all had a significant impact on the effective tax rate. This put the campaign for tax reform into a different perspective: many of the distortions, and opportunities for tax avoidance, were coming from the variation of tax rates rather than the average level itself.
Hans-Werner played an important role in stimulating our thinking and hosted an enjoyable and productive meeting in Munich. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, and not only Germany but the wider world of economics has benefited both from his insights and his ability to articulate them clearly in terms of their implications for economic policy.
I look forward to reading more work by Hans-Werner before I join you all again for his 80th birthday celebrations.
Introduction with letters of congratulations and press echo.
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