Jürgen Stark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jürgen Stark (born 31 May 1948 in Gau-Odernheim, Germany), is a German economist who has been a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank since June 2006. Within the Executive Board he is responsible for Economics and for Monetary Analysis. (Although he is often referred to as the "chief economist" of the ECB, strictly speaking this is not an official title).
Raised in Rhineland-Palatinate, he studied economics at the University of Hohenheim and Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He received a doctorate in 1975. From 1978 to 1998 he held economic policy positions in the German Federal Government. From September 1998 to May 2006 he served two consecutive terms as Vice President of the Bundesbank.
Because he comes from the Bundesbank, whose inflation fighting record the ECB is consciously trying to imitate, Stark's views carry a lot of weight both inside and outside the ECB. "Stark is the representative of a good old Bundesbank tradition," said Jörg Krämer, chief economist for HVB Group in Munich, quoted in the Herald Tribune of December 14, 2005. Arguably, he is the second most influential member of the executive board after Jean-Claude Trichet.
