Bruno Frey

Bruno S. Frey (born May 4, 1941 in Basel, Switzerland) is a Swiss economist and a professor at the University of Zurich. He is one of the world's leading welfare economists. He may be best known for his critique of Homo economicus or economic man, arguing that it places excessive emphasis on extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation.

In 2004 he was invited as one of ten experts for the Copenhagen Consensus sponsored by "The Economist" and funded by the Danish government to establish priorities for advancing global development. Frey co-founded the Center for Research in Economics Management and the Arts (CREMA) in Switzerland and acts as its research director. He has been the managing editor of the journal "Kyklos" since 1969 and has served on the editorial board of many other economic publications. Frey has written, co-written or edited more than a dozen books and has written more than 350 journal articles, mostly in economics journals, but also in political science, sociology and psychology.

Early career

Bruno Frey was born in Basel in 1941. He studied economics at the University of Basel, achieving a master of economics degree in 1964 and a doctorate the following year. In 1969 he was appointed as an associate professor of economics at the University of Basel. From 1970 to 1977 he was full professor of public finance at the University of Konstanz in Germany.

Frey was also appointed managing editor of "Kyklos", a Swiss journal on political economy, in 1969. The journal is currently published by CREMA. Frey was the founder of CREMA together with René Frey of the University of Basel and Reiner Eichenberger of the University of Fribourg.

His first book, "Umweltökonomie" ("Environmental Economics"), was published in Göttingen in 1972. "Moderne Politische Ökonomie" was published in 1977 in Germany with English editions appearing in England and the U.S. in 1978.

Professor of Economics 1977-1997

Frey was appointed as a full professor of economics at the University of Zurich in 1977. Frey published a number of significant books during the 1980s:

*"Theorie demokratischer Wirtschaftspolitik" (Democratic Economic Policy), Germany, 1981; US and UK, 1983.
*"Demokratische Wirtschaftspolitik", written with Gebhard Kirchgässner and published in Munich in 1981.
*"Schattenwirtschaft" (Shadow Economy) was written with Hannelore Weck and Werner Pommerehne and published in Munich in 1984.
*"International Political Economics" was published in the US and UK in 1984 and in Germany in 1985.
*"Die heimliche Wirtschaft", written with Hannelore Weck-Hanneman and Werner Pommerehne, was published in Switzerland in 1986.
*"Muses and Markets: Explorations in the Economics of the Arts", with Werner Pommerehne, was published in the UK in 1989 and in Germany in 1993.

"Muses and Markets" is considered one of the leading books on the economics of the arts. One of the key points of Frey's critique of "economic man" is that the basic model does not explain how an artist or craftsman would take pride in their work other than from the price received in the marketplace for such work.

Frey had another work, "Ökonomie ist Sozialwissenschaft", published in Germany in 1990. This work was published in English as "Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour: Towards a New Social Science Paradigm". Bruno Frey has been interested in using insights from other disciplines such as psychology, political science, and sociology in economics.

International recognition

Bruno Frey has won international recognition for his work in recent years. In 1998 he was awarded honorary doctorates at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and at University of Göteborg in Sweden. Frey has continued to write and edit books, including:
*"Not Just for the Money: An Economic Theory of Personal Motivation", 1997, UK.
*"Ein neuer Föderalismus für Europa: Die Idee der FOCJ", 1997, Germany.
*"Markt und Motivation: Wie ökonomische Anreize die (Arbeits-)Moral verdrängen", Germany, 1997.
*"The New Democratic Federalism for Europe: Functional, Overlapping and Competing Jurisdictions" with Reiner Eichenberger, UK, 1999.
*"Arts & Economics; Analysis & Cultural Policy", US and Germany, 2000.
*"Managing Motivation: Wie Sie die neue Motivationsforschung für Ihr Unternehmen nutzen können", edited with Margit Osterloh, Germany, 2000.
*"Inspiring Economics: Human Motivation in Political Economy", UK, 2001.
*"Happiness & Economics", with Alois Stutzer, 2002, US and UK.
*"Successful Management by Motivation: Balancing Intrinsic and Extrinsic Incentives", edited with Margit Osterloh, US and Germany, 2002.
*"Dealing with Terrorism: Stick or Carrot", 2004, UK and US.
*"Economics and psychology. A promising new cross-disciplinary field", ed. by Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer. Cambridge ; London : MIT Press, 2007. ISBN 0-262-06263-1. ISBN 978-0-262-06263-3.

"Not Just for the Money" emphasised the importance of intrinsic motivation in employment as well as remuneration. "Arts and Economics" looked at various artistic institutions such as festivals and museums from an economic perspective. "Inspiring Economics" looked at new insights from psychological research and how they can be applied to economics.

"Happiness and Economics" was the first study of the interplay between economics and happiness. "Successful Management by Motivation" looked at case studies in various companies and argued that performance pay could actually reduce motivation in certain circumstances. "Dealing with Terrorism" explored possible economic approaches to terrorism.

In 2004, Frey was invited to act as one of ten experts at the Copenhagen Consensus. The Copenhagen Consensus was organised by Bjørn Lomborg and the Institute for Environmental Assessment funded by the Danish Government and sponsored by "The Economist". The panel of experts included four winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics and were required to assess the costs and benefits of alternative approaches to major global issues such as climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, education, financial instability, corruption in government, malnutrution and hunger, migration, water and sanitation and trade barriers.

On 15 November 2005 Bruno Frey was awarded the "Distinguished CES Fellow 2005" award by the CES Institute at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.

On October 11th, 2007 he received the Gustav-Stolper-Prize of the Verein für Socialpolitik; a prize established to honor researchers that substantially influenced public debates by communicating economic thought and theories to general audiences and that have made major contributions to the understanding and solution of economic problems.

Further references

* [http://www.iew.unizh.ch/home/frey/ Website at the University of Zürich]
* [http://www.crema-research.ch/bsf.htm CREMA Research biography]
* [http://www.infography.com/content/819452166938.html Infography about art economics]
* [http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.asp?ID=177 Copenhagen Consensus page on Bruno Frey]