Ottmar Edenhofer among the top 10 most influential economists in Germany

The "Economists' Ranking 2020" published today provides evidence that the coronavirus pandemic has by no means pushed the climate issue to the margins. With almost exactly the same number of points as in 2019, Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Berlin-based climate research institute MCC (Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change), has for the second year in a row landed among the top 10 economic experts having the greatest influence in Germany according to the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ). The FAZ compiles this ranking every year on the basis of extensive data and survey results and this year, Edenhofer is in 10th place; last year, the intensive discussion about the German climate package had pushed him into 7th place.

On the agenda in recent months, for example, has been the question of how the economic stimulus packages made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic should be aligned with climate protection. Moreover, the pandemic and climate crises are similar in nature: they show how important "global commons", i.e. global public goods such as pandemic protection or maintenance of the Earth's atmosphere, are for prosperity in the 21st century. In 2012, Edenhofer founded the MCC in order to develop policy solutions for the protection and adequate provision of global commons, rooted in economics and other social sciences. He is also Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor for the Economics of Climate Change at the Technische Universität Berlin.

The FAZ ranking is based, in equal proportions, on a combination of the impact an individual has on science and the public. In order to quantify this, the editorial team has created an index of four influencing factors: the number of citations according to the Scopus science database, the number of citations in 18 leading print, online and TV media in Germany, the self-disclosure of 109 parliamentarians and executives from ministries at federal and state level ("Whose advice or publication do you value most for your work?"), and the outreach of personal Twitter accounts.

Further information:
The complete ranking of the 100 most influential economists can be found here (in German).