Thomas Straubhaar (born August 2, 1957) is a Swiss economist and migration researcher. He is a professor for international economic relations at the University of Hamburg.
Thomas Straubhaar (born August 2, 1957) is a Swiss economist and migration researcher. He is a professor for international economic relations at the University of Hamburg.
Straubhaar was born on August 2, 1957, in Unterseen, Bern, in Switzerland.[ citation needed ]
He graduated from the University of Bern in 1981 with a degree in economics and minors in operations research and mathematics. From 1981 to 1989, he was an assistant at the Institute of Economics there. In 1983 he received his doctorate under the supervision of Egon Tuchtfeldt and in 1986 his habilitation with his work On the Economics of International Labor Migration. In the meantime, he conducted research at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1989/90 he was a lecturer in the postgraduate program in International Economic Relations at the University of Konstanz and from 1989 to 1992 he was a lecturer in Economic Policy at the University of Basel. In 1991/92, he also served as a deputy to the Chair of Economic Policy at the University of Freiburg.[ citation needed ]
In 1992, Straubhaar was appointed professor of economics at the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg. Since 1999, he has been professor of international economic relations at the University of Hamburg and was also president of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA), which closed in 2006. In 2005, Straubhaar became director of the then newly founded Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI). Straubhaar announced in 2013 that he would step down from this position in September 2014. [1] He also lectures regularly at the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration. From 2008 to 2011, he was a member of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration.[ citation needed ]
Straubhaar is an ambassador for the Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM). He is a member of the boards of trustees of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom [2] (since 1994, Vertrauensdozent) and HASPA Finanzholding, is on the board of trustees of the Körber Foundation and the Edmund Siemers Foundation, and is a member of the BahnBeirat. Since 2013, he has been a Policy Fellow of the Institute on the Future of Work. Straubhaar is also a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (Acatech). He is a member of the Deutsche Bahn Group Advisory Board.[ citation needed ]
He is the initiator of the Pro Bürgergeld association and, together with Bernd Lucke and Michael Funke, initiated the Hamburg Appeal in 2005. Since 2014, he has been vice chairman of the Foundation - CLUB OF HAMBURG.[3] He writes as a columnist for WeltN24 . [3]
Straubhaar is married and father of three children. [3]
Straubhaar is a popular advocate of universal basic income (UBI) in the German-speaking area.
He is off the opinion that implementing a UBI will be necessary in the near future due to technological unemployment [4] and that a „Grundeinkommen garantiert Wohlstand für alle“ ("basic income guarantees prosperity for all"). [5]
According to Straubhaar, the concept of UBI is basically financeable without any problems. He describes it as "at its core, nothing more than a fundamental tax reform" that "[bundles] all social policy measures into a single instrument, the basic income paid out unconditionally." [6] He also considers a universal basic income to be socially just, arguing, although all citizens would receive the same amount in the form of the basic income at the beginning of the month, the rich would have lost significantly more money through taxes at the end of the month than they would have received through the basic income, while the opposite is the case for poorer people, similar to the concept of a negative income tax. [6]
Straubhaar also thinks that „Im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung ist es mehr denn je wirtschaftlich unsinnig, Menschen zu zwingen, Arbeiten zu erledigen, die menschenunwürdig sind. Der Mensch ist ökonomisch zu wertvoll, um ihn gefährliche, riskante und gesundheitsschädigende Arbeiten machen zu lassen und ihn dann Jahrzehnte bis zum Lebensende krank durch den Sozialstaat zu schleppen“ ("In the age of digitization, it is more economically senseless than ever to force people to do work that is inhumane. People are too valuable economically to be forced to do dangerous, risky and unhealthy work and then be dragged through the welfare state for decades until the end of their lives"). [4]
Straubhaar received several scholarships (including from the Swiss National Science Foundation and Die Zeit) and was awarded the following prizes:[ citation needed ]
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