Lars P Feld
Boards now have to make capital and treasury decisions inside a fiscal regime that is being rewritten in real time. Germany’s debt brake, the EU’s reformed stability rules, and the political economy of public borrowing all directly affect cost of capital, currency risk, and the credibility of sovereign counterparties. Leadership teams need a serious read on where the rules are actually heading, not commentary on the headline number.
Lars P Feld is a German economist and Freiburg professor who explains fiscal rules, sovereign debt sustainability, and European macroeconomic policy to leadership teams whose decisions depend on them.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Lars P Feld
- He helped design the constitutional framework leaders are now operating under. As an expert to Federalism Commission II in 2007, he contributed directly to the architecture of Germany’s debt brake, and his subsequent empirical work is the standard reference on its effects.
- He sat at the centre of German economic policymaking for a decade. Ten years on the German Council of Economic Experts, ending as chairman, and then three years as personal advisor to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, give him a working knowledge of how German fiscal decisions actually get made.
- He brings ordoliberal economics to questions where most macro commentary is purely Keynesian or markets-driven. His co-authored work on ordoliberalism and the eurozone crisis is the reference text for understanding why Berlin negotiates the way it does.
- His authority is institutional, not media-built. Gustav-Stolper-Prize, Leopoldina membership, Kronberger Kreis, an honorary doctorate from Lucerne and the Friedrich-List-Medal place him in a small group of economists whose published positions move German policy debate.
Biography highlights
- Chair for Economic Policy and Constitutional Economics, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, since 2010.
- President of the Walter Eucken Institute, Freiburg.
- Member of the German Council of Economic Experts, 2011 to 2021, and chairman in 2020 to 2021.
- Personal economic policy advisor to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, February 2022 to November 2024.
- Scientific Advisory Board, Federal Ministry of Finance, since 2003; Minimum Wage Commission member since 2020.
- Gustav-Stolper-Prize (2021); honorary doctorate, University of Lucerne (2017); Friedrich-List-Medal (2023); member of Leopoldina, Kronberger Kreis and Mont Pelerin Society.
Biography
Germany rewrote its constitution in 2009 to limit federal borrowing. Feld was one of the academic experts who fed that reform, sitting on Federalism Commission II and arguing the case for a binding fiscal rule. His later empirical work, including a synthetic-control evaluation co-authored with researchers at the Walter Eucken Institute, is now the reference analysis of what the debt brake actually did to German public finances in the decade that followed.
That mix of constitutional design and quantitative evaluation runs through his career. From the Chair for Economic Policy and Constitutional Economics in Freiburg, and as President of the Walter Eucken Institute, he works inside the ordoliberal tradition that has shaped how Berlin negotiates inside the eurozone. His co-authored paper on ordoliberalism, pragmatism and the eurozone crisis is one of the more cited explanations of why German positions on Greek debt, Italian deficits and ECB intervention took the shape they did.
He has spent a decade in the centre of German policymaking. Ten years on the German Council of Economic Experts, ending as chairman in 2020 to 2021, gave him a direct hand in the Council’s annual reports to the federal government. From February 2022 to November 2024, he served as personal economic policy advisor to Finance Minister Christian Lindner, a role that sits at the intersection of the ministry, the coalition and the Bundesbank.
The institutional recognition has followed. The Gustav-Stolper-Prize in 2021, regarded inside the Verein fuer Socialpolitik as the most prestigious German economics award, sits alongside Leopoldina membership, the Kronberger Kreis, the Friedrich-List-Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Lucerne. For a boardroom audience trying to understand where German and European fiscal policy is going, he is one of the small number of economists whose published positions still move the debate.
Key speaking topics
- The German debt brake and European fiscal rules
- Sovereign debt sustainability in the eurozone
- Ordoliberalism and German economic policy
- Macroeconomic outlook for Germany and the EU
- Public finance and federalism
- Minimum wage policy and labour market regulation
- The political economy of EU reform
Ideal for
- CFOs, group treasurers and chief economists making capital allocation decisions exposed to eurozone sovereign risk.
- Bank and asset manager boards with material German or EU government bond exposure.
- CEOs and strategy leads of industrial groups whose investment cases turn on German fiscal trajectory and energy and infrastructure spending.
- Policy and government relations leads tracking the German coalition, the EU Stability and Growth Pact, and ECB policy.
Audience outcomes
- A clear read on where the German debt brake debate is heading and what changes are politically feasible.
- A working model of how Berlin will negotiate inside the EU on fiscal rules, common debt and ECB policy.
- A sharper view of which sovereign and quasi-sovereign exposures are most sensitive to the next phase of European fiscal reform.
- An informed account of the ordoliberal tradition behind German policy positions, useful for anyone modelling counterparty or political risk in the eurozone.
Talks
A working read on how Germany and the EU will resolve the next phase of sovereign debt pressure, drawing on the debt brake experience and the reform of EU fiscal rules.
Key takeaways:
- Where the German debt brake debate is realistically heading after the 2024 court ruling and the coalition shift.
- How Berlin’s ordoliberal posture shapes EU fiscal negotiation, common debt and ECB intervention.
- Implications for sovereign spreads, capital allocation and corporate treasury planning across the eurozone.
An economic analysis of the size, drivers and policy response to the shadow economy in Europe, and what it means for tax base, labour markets and competitiveness.
Key takeaways:
- How the shadow economy is measured and where it has grown.
- The interaction between tax policy, regulation and informal activity.
- Policy levers that have worked and the trade-offs they carry.
A read on how the eurozone debt crisis reshaped global capital flows, sovereign risk pricing and the political economy of debt outside Europe.
Key takeaways:
- The transmission channels from European sovereign stress to global markets.
- Lessons from the German consolidation experience for other advanced economies.
- What the next sovereign debt cycle could look like and where the pressure points sit.