Isabella Weber Named to Commission Tasked with Modernizing Germany’s Debt Rules

Isabella Weber, associate professor of economics, has been appointed to a new German government commission of experts that will present recommendations for reforming fiscal rules to facilitate an increase in public investment in Europe's largest economy.

Weber has become a leading voice on policy responses to inflation and cascading economic crises and has advised policymakers in the U.S. and Germany on questions of price stabilization.

She was named to the 15-member Expert Commission on the Modernization of the Debt Rule by Minister of Finance Lars Klingbeil. The rule limits federal budget deficits to 0.35% of gross domestic product and is considered by many to be an outdated policy that has constrained the national government's efforts to boost an economy that has contracted for two consecutive years.

"The extremely rigid German fiscal rules have been a major stumbling block for Germany's economic recovery, paved the way for the downfall of the previous government and have undermined Europe's attempts at a fiscal policy stance that enables an adequate response to the multiple crises," Weber notes. "A serious reform could be an extraordinarily consequential turn in economic policymaking."

The commission's recommendations are expected to be the basis for draft legislation by the end of the year.