Bruno Frey

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Professor Bruno S. Frey (born on May 4, 1941 in Basel, Switzerland) is a Swiss economists and one of the world's leading welfare economists. He is best known for his critique of Homo economicus or economic man, arguing that it places excessive emphasis on extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation.

In 2004, he was invited as one of ten experts for the Copenhagen Consensus sponsored by The Economist and funded by the Danish Government to establish priorities for advancing global development. Frey co-founded the Center for Research in Economics Management and the Arts (CREMA) in Switzerland and acts as its Research Director. He has been the managing editor of the journal Kyklos in 1969 and has served on the editorial board of many other economic publications. Frey has written, co-written or edited more than a dozen books and has written more than 450 journal articles mostly in economic journals but also contributing to journals in political science, sociology and psychology.

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[edit] Early career

Bruno Frey was born in Basel in 1941. He studied economics at the University of Basel achieving a master of economics in 1964 and his doctorate the following year. In 1969, he was appointed as an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Basel. From 1970 to 1977 he was full Professor of Public Finance at the University of Konstanz in Germany.

Frey was also appointed managing of Kyklos a Swiss journal on political economy in 1969, currently published by CREMA. Frey was the founder of CREMA together with René Frey of the University of Basel and Reiner Eichenberger of the University of Fribourg.

His first book Umweltökonomie (Environmental Economics was published in Göttingen in 1972. Moderne Politische Ökonomie was published in 1977 in Germany with English versions being published in England and the US in 1978.

[edit] Professor of Economics 1977-1997

Frey was appointed as a full Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich in 1977. Frey published a number of significant books during the 1980's:

  • Theorie demokratischer Wirtschaftspolitik (Democratic Economic Policy) Germany 1981 US and UK 1983;
  • Demokratische Wirtschaftspolitik was written with Gebhard Kirchgässner and published in Munich in 1981;
  • Schattenwirtschaft (Shadow Economy) was written with Hannelore Weck and Werner Pommerehne and published in Munich in 1984;
  • International Political Economics was published in the US and UK in 1984 and Germany in 1985;
  • Die heimliche Wirtschaft written with Hannelore Weck-Hanneman and Werner Pommerehne was published in Switzerland in 1986; and
  • Muses and Markets: Explorations in the Economics of the Arts with Werner Pommerehne was published in the UK in 1989 and Germany in 1993.

Muses and Markets is considered as one of the leading books on the economics of the arts. One of the key points of Frey's critique of economic man is that the basic model does not explain how an artist or craftsman would take pride in their work other than from the price received in the market place for such work.

Frey had another work Ökonomie ist Sozialwissenschaft published in Germany in 1990. This work was published as Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour: Towards a New Social Science Paradigm. Bruno Frey has been interested in using insights from other disciplines such as psychology, political science and sociology in economics.

[edit] International recognition 1997

Bruno Frey has won international recognition for his work in recent years. In 1998, he was awarded honorary doctorates at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and at University of Göteborg in Sweden. Frey has continued to write and edit books including:

  • Not Just for the Money: An Economic Theory of Personal Motivation 1997 UK
  • Ein neuer Föderalismus für Europa: Die Idee der FOCJ 1997 Germany;
  • Markt und Motivation: Wie ökonomische Anreize die (Arbeits-) Moral verdrängen Germany 1997;
  • The New Democratic Federalism for Europe: Functional, Overlapping and Competing Jurisdictions with Reiner Eichenberger UK 1999;
  • Arts & Economics; Analysis & Cultural Policy US and Germany 2000.
  • Managing Motivation: Wie Sie die neue Motivationsforschung für Ihr Unternehmen nutzen können with Margit Osterloh edior Germany 2000;
  • Inspiring Economics: Human Motivation in Political Economy UK 2001;
  • Happiness & Economics with Alois Stutzer 2002 US and UK
  • Successful Management by Motivation: Balancing Intrinsic and Extrinsic Incentives with Margit Osterloh editors US and Germany; 2002 and
  • Dealing with Terrorism: Stick or Carrot 2004 UK and US.

Not Just for the Money emphasised the importance of intrinsic motivation in employment as well as remuneration. Arts and Economics looked at various artistic institutions such as festivals and museums from an economic perspective. Inspiring Economics looked at new insights from psychological research and how they can be applied to economics.

Happiness and Economics was the first study of the interplay between economics and happiness. Successful Management by Motivation looked at case studies in various companies and argued that performance pay could actually reduce motivation in certain circumstances. Dealing with Terrorism explored possible economic approaches to terrorism.

In 2004, Frey was invited to act as one of ten experts at the Copenhagen Consensus. The Copenhagen Consensus was organised by Bjørn Lomborg and the Institute for Environmental Assessment funded by the Danish Government and sponsored by The Economist. The panel of experts included four winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics and were required to assess the costs and benefits of alternative approaches to major global issues such as climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, education, financial instability, corruption in government, malnutrution and hunger, migration, water and sanitation and trade barriers.

On 15.11.2005 Bruno Frey was awarded the "Distinguished CES Fellow 2005" award by the CES Institute at the Ludwig-Maximillians University, Munich, Germany.

[edit] Further references

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