Clemens Fuest is considered one of the most prominent German economists, and is a leading policy advisor. He is President of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, and also Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim.

Between 2008-2013 Fuest was Research Director at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, and until the end of 2013 he was one of the directors of the Institute for Public Economics in Cologne. He has been a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the German Federal Ministry of Finance since 2003 and had been head of the board from 2007-10. In 2012 he became a member of the Advisory Board for Sustainable Development of the State Government of Baden-Württemberg. As a member of the Tax Code Commission’s steering committee, which was initiated by The Market Economy Foundation, he contributed to the conception of a simpler tax law for Germany. He had been a member of the foundation’s scientific council “Kronberger Kreis” from 2004 to 2008 and is a member of this prestigious advisory body again as of March 2013.

Fuest’s current research focuses on the debt crisis in the eurozone, international fiscal competition, the implications of globalisation and European integration for tax policy, and the impact of taxation on corporate behaviour. His research has been published widely in international academic journals, and he sits on the editorial boards of various international scientific journals. He also contributes to thinking on economic and fiscal policy though articles in the press including Handelsblatt, Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Wall Street Journal.