CES History Time Table: Chronology of Events
| 1961 | Hans Möller founds the "Economics Faculty Colloquium", a weekly seminar with international visitors. |
| May 1988 | To counter an offer to Hans-Werner Sinn by the University of Bern, Dr. Zimmermann of the Bavarian Ministry for Education suggests the possibility of founding a research institute. |
| Autumn 1988 | Hans-Werner Sinn prepares an outline for the foundation of a new type of research institute at the University of Munich, in close collaboration with the Faculty of Economics (esp. Edwin von Böventer, Otto Gandenberger, Utta Gruber and Hans Möller). |
| 4-8 September 1989 | Hans-Werner Sinn's chair organizes the Econometric Society European Meeting (ESEM), about 700 participants with 400 papers presented. |
| 18 January 1991 | The Center for Economic Studies is officially founded as an independent institute of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Munich. The Center is chaired by Hans-Werner Sinn. |
| 1991 | Angela Lechner and Valerie Morfill are the first CES team who laid the foundation for a well functioning organization. The founder members of the CES Council are Richard Musgrave, Hans Möller, Edwin von Böventer, David Bradford, Franz Gehrels, Martin Beckmann, Otto Gandenberger, Agnar Sandmo, Karlhans Sauernheimer, and Klaus Zimmermann. |
| 4 April 1991 | First issue of the CES Journal, a bilingual international newsletter informing the scientific community about the activities of CES. |
| May/June 1991 | The first visitors arrive, among them David Bradford, Richard Musgrave, Jürg Niehans, Gary S. Becker, David Wildasin, John Pigott, Syed Ahsan, Peter Birch Sørensen, Dominique Demougin, and Henning Bohn. The first step has been made. |
| May/June 1991 | First CES Working Paper by Richard Musgrave: "Social Contract, Taxation and the Standing of Deadweight Loss". |
| 11 June 1992 | Symposium on German Unification |
| 12-13 June 1992 | Trans Atlantic Public Economics Seminar (TAPES) with NBER, Cambridge, Mass., held in Munich |
| 1992 | Christian Thimann becomes CES Academic Coordinator and forms together with Angela Lechner as CES Manager and Valerie Morfill the CES management team. |
| November 1992 | CES moves into its new rooms in the building in Schackstrasse 4. |
| April/May 1993 | Significant CES enlargement: dynamic formula for visitors' budget, guest apartments in the university guest house (IBZ). |
| 9 June 1993 | Official Inauguration of CES by Hans Zehetmair, Bavarian Minister of Education, Culture, Science and the Arts. Lectures by Richard Musgrave, Martin Beckmann, and Agnar Sandmo. In connection with this event the first formal meeting of the CES Council takes place. Members of the Council are David Bradford (rejoined the Council), Martin Hellwig, Mervyn King, Joe Stiglitz, Martin Beckmann, Edwin von Böventer, Otto Gandenberger, Agnar Sandmo, Karlhans Sauernheimer, and Klaus Zimmermann. Honorary members are Richard Musgrave, Hans Möller, and Franz Gehrels. The Council is chaired by David Bradford. The Council meets once a year. It elects the "Distinguished CES Fellow" who gives the Munich Lectures in Economics, and determines the annual visitors' program. |
| 10 November 1993 | CES starts offering courses in the new graduate program for doctoral studies of the Faculty of Economics. The annual number of long-term visitors increases by about 50% and approximates 30. The annual number of lecture courses about doubles and approximates 18. |
| 17 January 1994 | Edwin von Böventer, who contributed greatly to the establishment and development of CES, passes away unexpectedly. |
| 1 September 1994 | CES becomes a partner in Economic Policy, Europe's largest scientific journal in the field. Hans-Werner Sinn joins the board of senior editors and nominates Klaus F. Zimmermann of the Faculty of Economics as managing editor. Ray Rees becomes member of the Board of Governors. |
| 13-15 December 1994 | The first "Munich Lectures in Economics" are given by Avinash Dixit, the Distinguished CES Fellow 1994 titled "Economic Policies and the Political Process". At the same time the Alumni-Club of the faculty of economics is founded with the support of CES. |
| April 1995 | First issue of Economic Policy with CES participation. |
| 31 October - 2 November 1995 | Conference in Tutzing on: "Competition or Harmonization? - Fiscal Policy, Regulation, and Standards", organized jointly by CES and the Department of Economics, University of Oslo. |
| 28-30 November 1995 | Munich Lectures in Economics 1995 held by the Distinguished CES Fellow 1995 Anthony Atkinson titled "The Economics of Rolling Back the Welfare State". |
| January 1996 | CES on the internet: information on events at the institute is published online. |
| June 1996 | CES opens a book series with MIT Press which is to publish the Munich Lectures. Avinash Dixit's "Economic Policy and the Political Process" appears as the first issue of this series. |
| 26-28 November 1996 | Munich Lectures in Economics held by the Distinguished CES Fellow 1996 Jean Tirole titled "New Paradigms in the Regulation of Telecommunications". |
| 16 December 1996 | Hans Möller passes away. |
| January 1997 | Joseph Stiglitz, MIT, rejoins the CES council after leaving the Council of Economic Advisors. Klaus Schmidt, University of Munich, is welcomed as a new member of the CES council. |
| 25 November 1997 | Paul Krugman, MIT, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 1997 and holds the Munich Lectures 1997, "Making sense of Globalization". |
| 23-27 March 1998 | James M. Buchanan and Richard A. Musgrave Symposium "Public Finance and Public Choice: Two Contrasting Visions of the State" For one week the two scholars mutually present and discuss their rivaling views on the state in front of an international audience. |
| June 1998 | Bernd Huber, Klaus Schmidt, Ray Rees become program directors for the visiting scholars. |
| June 1998 | CES Video Lectures open with video-on-demand version of the Buchanan and Musgrave Symposium on the internet. |
| 17-19 November 1998 | Rudi Dornbusch, MIT, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 1998. The Munich Lectures 1998 are entitled "International Financial Crises" |
| January 1999 | On the management level of CES, Alfons Weichenrieder and Martina Grass take over from Helge Berger and Holger Feist who now have management responsibilities at CESifo. |
| February 1999 | Hans-Werner Sinn becomes president of the ifo Institute for Economic Research Munich |
| March 1999 | Foundation of the CESifo GmbH (Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research), a joint initiative of LMU and ifo Institute. |
| April 1999 | The CES working paper series is renamed to "CESifo Working Paper Series", and now also invites submissions from CESifo network members. |
| 16-18 November 1999 | Guido Tabellini, IGIER, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 1999 and holds the Munich Lectures 1999, "Fiscal Policy in Representative Democracies". |
| 14 September 2000 | Inaugural meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council of the ifo Institute and CESifo, Chairman David F. Bradford |
| 14-16 November 2000 | Peter A. Diamond, MIT, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2000 and holds the Munich Lectures 2000, "Taxation, Incomplete Markets and Social Security". |
| 12-13 January 2001 | Celebration of Richard Musgrave’s 90th and CES’s 10th birthday. The conference "Public Finances and Public Policy in the New Millennium is held. Richard Musgrave is given an honorary doctoral degree by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Munich |
| March 2001 | On the management level Ulrich Hange succeeds Alfons Weichenrieder in the position of the CES Academic Coordinator. |
| April 2001 | CESifo Working Paper Series enters the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). |
| May 2001 | Gerhard Illing becomes a new member of the CES Program Directors. |
| 14-16 November 2001 | Oliver Hart, Harvard University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2001 and holds the Munich Lectures 2001, "Firms versus Markets". |
| June 2002 | ifo Institute becomes an "Institute at the University of Munich" |
| 19-21 November 2002 | Nicholas H. Stern, World Bank (Chief Economist and Senior Vice President) is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2002 and holds the Munich Lectures 2002, "Dynamic Development: Innovation and Inclusion". |
| August 2003 | On the management level Silke Uebelmesser becomes CES Academic Coordinator succeeding Ulrich Hange who is now Managing Director at CESifo. |
| 18-20 November 2003 | James Poterba, MIT Department of Economics, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2003 and holds the Munich Lectures 2003, "Government Policy and Private Retirement Saving". |
| 16-18 November 2004 | Andrei Shleifer, Harvard University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2004 and holds the Munich Lectures 2004, "The Marketplace of Ideas". |
| November 2004 | On the management level Rajshri Jayaraman becomes CES Academic Coordinator succeeding Silke Uebelmesser who is now Program Director at CESifo. |
| November 2004 | The CES Council is reorganised, the area coordinators of the CESifo research network became members of the council. |
| 22 February 2005 | David Bradford passes away. He was a great economist, and one of the heroes of public finance. He was a longtime member of the CES Advisory Council, and from 1999 he served as Head of the Ifo and CESifo Scientific Advisory Council. |
| 15-17 November 2005 | Bruno S. Frey, University of Zurich, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2005 and holds the Munich Lectures 2005, "Happiness Research: A Revolution in Economics". |
| 14-16 November 2006 | Alberto Alesina, Harvard University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2006 and holds the Munich Lectures 2006, "On the Choice of Institutions". |
| 15 January 2007 | Richard Mausgrave passes away at the age of 96. One of the great economists and thinkers of the post-war era, Richard Musgrave is credited as one of the true pioneers and scholars in modern public economics. He advised several US governments, was honorary president of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) and helped found the Center for Economic Studies and the CESifo Research Network. The University of Munich granted him an honorary doctorate. He served on the CES Scientific Advisory Council until his death. |
| May 2007 | On the management level Doina Radulescu becomes CES Academic Coordinator succeeding Rajshri Jayaraman. |
| 13-15 November 2007 | Philippe Aghion, Harvard University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2007 and holds the Munich Lectures 2007, "Governance and Growth". |
| 25 April 2008 | For the sixtieth birthday of Hans-Werner Sinn, the LMU Economics Faculty and the Ifo Institute host an international conference devoted to current economic-policy issues under the topic “Economic Policy in the Presence of Globalisation”. Numerous renowned economists, including Nobel laureates James J. Heckman and Sir James A. Mirrlees, are attending. |
| 18 November 2008 | Olivier Blanchard, IMF and MIT, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2008 and holds the Munich Lectures 2008, "The World Financial and Economic Crisis". |
| 25 May 2009 | Alan Auerbach, University of California, Berkeley, the first winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the first Richard Musgrave Lecture at LMU Munich, "Public Finance in Practice and Theory". |
| October 2009 | On the management level Florian Buck becomes CES Academic Coordinator succeeding Doina Radulescu. |
| 17-19 November 2009 | Robin Boadway, Queen's University, Canada, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2009 and holds the Munich Lectures 2009, "From Optimal Tax Theory to Tax Policy: Retrospective and Prospective Views". |
| 7 July 2010 | Michael Keen, International Monetary Fund IMF, the 2010 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2010 at LMU Munich, "Taxing and Regulating the Financial Sector". |
| 16-18 November 2010 | Richard Blundell, University College London and Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2010 and holds the Munich Lectures 2010, "Empirical Evidence and Tax Reform: Lessons from the Mirrlees Review". Rick van der Ploeg becomes Chairman of the CES Council. |
| 8 April 2011 | Timothy Besley, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the 2011 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2011 at LMU Munich, "Some Principles of Public Organization". |
| November 2011 | Ernst Fehr, University of Zurich and Klaus Schmidt, LMU Munich, are becoming Area Coordinators of the new research area "Behavioural Economics" of the CESifo network and Ernst Fehr becomes a new member of the CES Scientific Council. |
| 15-17 November 2011 | Sir Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge, UK, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2011 and holds the Munich Lectures 2011, "Time and the Generations". |
| 12 April 2012 | Eytan Sheshinski, Sir Isaac Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Public Finance and member of the Academic Committee of Center for Rationality, both at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the 2012 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2012 at LMU Munich, "Socially Desirable Limits on Choice". |
| 13-15 November 2012 | Esther Duflo, MIT Department of Economics, Cambridge, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2012 and holds the Munich Lectures 2012, "Gender Equality and Development". |
| 11 April 2013 | Joel Slemrod, University of Michigan, the 2013 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2013 at LMU Munich, "Insights from a Tax-Systems Perspective". |
| 19-21 November 2013 | Ernst Fehr, University of Zurich, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2013 and holds the Munich Lectures 2013, "Foundations of Economic Preferences". |
| 24 April 2014 | James Hines Jr., University of Michigan, the 2014 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2014 at LMU Munich, "International Taxation and National Interests". |
| 18-20 November 2014 | Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2014 and holds the Munich Lectures 2014, "Rethinking the Global Currency System". |
| 16 April 2015 | Raj Chetty, Harvard University, the 2015 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2015 at LMU Munich, "Behavioral Economics and Public Policy: A Pragmatic Perspective". |
| October 2015 | On the management level Susanne Wildgruber becomes CES Academic Coordinator succeeding Florian Buck. |
| 17-19 November 2015 | Daron Acemoglu, MIT, USA, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2015 and holds the Munich Lectures 2015, "Political Economy of State Building". |
| 22 January 2016 | International Scientific Symposium and Official Ceremony to mark Hans-Werner Sinn’s Retirement and the 25th Anniversary of the Center for Economic Studies (CES). The program of the Scientific Symposium consisted of • The scientific laudation in honour of Hans-Werner Sinn, held by Kai A. Konrad, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance and Professor of Economics at LMU Munich • A keynote address by Jens Weidmann, the President of the Deutsche Bundesbank • And four scientific panel discussions on topical issues with renowned economists from all over the world The contributions to the Official ceremony were • Two ceremonial lectures held by Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Federal Minister of Finance, and Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard University • A Retrospective of 25 Years of CES, and the Hans-Werner Sinn Era at the LMU and the Ifo Institute by Otto Wiesheu, former Bavarian State Minister of Economics, and Agnar Sandmo, Professor Emeritus, Norwegian School of Economics and former Chairman of the CES Council and Monika Schnitzer, Professor for Comparative Economics, University of Munich, Chairwoman of the Verein für Socialpolitik |
| 31 March 2016 | An era is coming to an end. The presidency of Prof. Hans-Werner Sinn at the Ifo Institute ends along with his professorship at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) and his function as Director of the Center for Economic Studies (CES) and Head of CESifo GmbH. |
| 1 April 2016 | Prof. Clemens Fuest assumes his new position as ifo President. He also holds the Chair of Economics and Public Finance at the Faculty of Economics at the LMU, the directorship of the Center for Economic Studies (CES) at the LMU and the chief executive position at CESifo GmbH. |
| 7 April 2016 | Kai A. Konrad, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, the 2016 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the 10th Richard Musgrave Lecture 2016 at LMU Munich, "Brothers in Arms – Theory and Experimental Evidence on Alliances". |
| 15-17 November 2016 | Bengt Holmstrom, MIT, USA, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2016 and holds the Munich Lectures 2016, "Political Economy of State Building". |
| 27 April 2017 | Rachel Griffith, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the 2017 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the 10th Richard Musgrave Lecture 2017 at LMU Munich, "Do Sin Taxes Work?". |
| 14-16 November 2017 | Susan Athey, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, USA, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2017 and holds the Munich Lectures 2017, "Using Big Data and Machine Learning to Understand the Impact of Digitization". |
| 12 April 2018 | Michael P. Devereux, University of Oxford, the 2018 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the 10th Richard Musgrave Lecture 2018 at LMU Munich, "Taxing Profit in a Global Economy". |
| June 2018 | On the management level Christian Holzner becomes CES Academic Coordinator succeeding Susanne Wildgruber. |
| 13-15 November 2018 | Torsten Persson, Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2018 and holds the Munich Lectures 2018, "Institutions and Culture". |
| 28 March 2019 | Roger H. Gordon, University of California, San Diego, the 2019 winner of the Richard Musgrave Professorship instituted by IIPF and the CESifo Group Munich, gives the Richard Musgrave Lecture 2019 at LMU Munich, "The Role of the Corporate Income Tax". |
| May 2019 | Dominik Sachs becomes a CES Program Director and Member of the CES Council. |
| 19-21 November 2019 | Amy Finkelstein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2019 and holds the Munich Lectures 2019, "Facts and Fallacies: Rethinking US Healthcare". |
| 10 November 2020 | Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2020 and holds the Munich Lectures 2020, "Why working from home will stick". Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Munich Lectures in Economics 2020 took place as a virtual event. |
| 31 July 2021 | Dominik Sachs leaves LMU Munich for a professorship at University of St. Gallen and is no longer a member of the CES Council. |
| 9 November 2021 | Matthew Gentzkow, Stanford University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2021 and holds the Munich Lectures 2021, "Why working from home will stick". Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Munich Lectures in Economics 2021 took place as a virtual event. |
| February 2022 | Claudia Steinwender, LMU Munich, becomes a new Member of the CES Council. |
| 15 November 2022 | Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University, is awarded the Distinguished CES Fellow Prize 2022 and holds the Munich Lectures 2022, "Career & Family: Women’s century-long journey towards equity". Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Munich Lectures in Economics 2022 took place as a virtual event. |
| November 2022 | Emanuel Hansen, LMU Munich, becomes a new Member of the CES Council. |