Friday, 25 April 2008, Munich Residence, Max-Joseph-Saal
I regret very much that I can not be in Munich to salute Hans-Werner Sinn in person on this fine occasion. Maybe it is better this way, however. Whenever I can actually see Hans-Werner’s critical eye watching me, I am afraid that I will say something wrong or inaccurate. Then he will let me know, even if I have praised him incorrectly, and I will wish I had a tail so that I could tuck it between my legs and slink away. Since I am not there, he will have to smile politely.
You might think that the scholarly and entrepreneurial talents are incompatible, or even contradictory. Almost always they are. I have known a very small number of people who, after an outstanding scholarly-scientific career, have been able to transform themselves into successful academic entrepreneurs. I can not think of anyone who has been able to travel that road in reverse order, although I know a few who have tried it and failed. Only Hans-Werner seems to be able be both a superb analytical economist and a far-seeing academic entrepreneur at the same time, at least in the same week.
When I read something Hans-Werner has written on public economics, say, I do not necessarily always agree with him. But I am always immediately conscious that this is an acute mind at work, and above all a mind that will follow the trail of a problem wherever it may lead, with no concession to anything other than logic and fact. I had a close friend, a mathematician, whose supreme adjective of praise was “serious”: he is a serious algebraist, this is a serious painting, that is a serious piece of music. Hans-Werner is a serious economist.
On the entrepreneurial side, it is simply astonishing what he has done in just a few years. He has made Munich into one of the world centers of economic research, built CESifo out of small pieces, and created an international network of the first rank. The expenditure of human energy and imagination has been enormous.
How has he done both? Paul Samuelson once described Harry Johnson as spending ¾ of his time in Chicago and ¾ of his time in London. Maybe that is Hans-Werner’s secret: time is not additive for him. Whatever it is, I wish him calm seas and a prosperous voyage. And, Herr Professor, I hope that I have not said anything wrong or inaccurate.
Introduction with letters of congratulations and press echo.
Programme and speakers' profiles
Short conference report
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