ZEW Economic Forum 2010: Review and Future Outlook of Agenda 2010

On Friday 11 June, ZEW President Professor Wolfgang Franz welcomed almost 400 guests to the institute in Mannheim for the ZEW Economic Forum 2010. The theme of this year’s event was “Agenda 2010 – Review and Future Outlook”, with many talks and discussions taking a close look at the effects of the most comprehensive reform of the German social security system since the founding of the modern republic. Along with a great many other renowned speakers from the world of economic research, ZEW also had the honour of welcoming as a guest speaker former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was largely responsible for introducing and designing the Agenda 2010.

The morning was largely taken up by an academic debate over the effects of the Agenda 2010. Speakers including Dr. Andreas Wörgötter from the OECD, Dr. Holger Bonin from ZEW, Professor Wolfgang Wiegard from the University of Regensburg and member of the German Council of Economic Experts and Professor Axel Börsch-Supan, Director of the Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), discussed the main aspects of the reforms in term of the labour market, social security and public finance as well as the successes and failures of the Agenda 2010 with other acclaimed experts in the field.

This was followed in the afternoon by the keynote speech from former chancellor Gerhard Schröder entitled “After Agenda 2010: Are further Reforms in Germany still Possible?”