Karlsruhe Dialogues 2010

Friedrich Schneider was born in 1949. Since 1986 he has been professor of economics in the areas of economic policy and public finance at the Department of Economics at the University of Linz, Austria, and since 2006 he has been research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. From 1996 to 2007 he was Vice President for Foreign Affairs. Schneider is considered the most prominent expert on the topics of shadow economies, illegal labour and underground economies (as well as tax evasion and money laundering). He is also an esteemed speaker and consultant for politicians. Furthermore, he extensively explores the fields of political economy, privatization, deregulation policies and environmental economics. From 1991 to 2004 he was European editor of “Public Choice”, a journal for management, business administration and economics, and from 2000 to 2004 lead editor of “Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik”, a scientific journal of the ‘Verein für Sozialpolitik’ (social policy association), which he chaired from 2005 to 2008. He has also written and published numerous specialist books, essays in referenced journals and articles in edited volumes. The fact that public awareness of the problematic nature of the shadow economy has risen in Germany can largely be attributed to his numerous publications, lectures and public appearances on this topic. Schneider is board member of the IIPF (International Institute of Public Finance), and from 2001 to 2004 he was on the scientific advisory council of Avenir Suisse, a think tank on socio-political and economic development in Switzerland. In January 2003, he was appointed honorary doctor at the Catholic University Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru, and one month later at the University of Stuttgart. Moreover, in October 2006, he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Trujillo. Over the past years he spent time as a visiting professor at the Universities of Carnegie Mellon, Stockholm, Melbourne and Saarbrücken.