Martin Hellwig

Biography

Martin Hellwig was appointed Director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, and Professor of Economics at the University of Bonn (Courtesy Appointment) in 2004.

He holds a diploma in economics from the University of Heidelberg (1970) and a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1973).

His academic career began with a postdoctoral year at Stanford University, followed by three years as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Princeton University, two years as an Associate Professor at the University of Bonn, and seven years, nine years and eight years, respectively, as a Professor of Economics at the Universities of Bonn, Basel, and Mannheim. He has also held visiting positions at the Université Catholique de Louvain, the London School of Economics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Harvard University.

Professor Hellwig is a Member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs. He is also Vice-Chair (and was previously Chair) of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. Previously, he was Chair of the German Monopolies Commission, Member of the European Commission?s (DG Competition) Economic Advisory Group on Competition Policy, Chair of the German Government?s Advisory Committee for the Wirtschaftsfonds Deutschland in 2009-10 and Member of the German Government?s Advisory Committee for the Design of Exit Strategies for the Government?s Crisis-induced Participations in Banks. Professor Hellwig is also a former President of the European Economic Association and of the Verein für Socialpolitik (German Economic Association), an Honorary Member of the American Economic Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory.

His research interests involve mathematical economics and economics of information, public economics, network industries and competition policy, financial markets and financial institutions, corporate governance, and the foundations of monetary theory and macroeconomics. His book The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong With Banking and What to Do About It, which was written jointly with Anat Admati from Stanford University, was published by Princeton University Press in 2013.