Prof. Dr. Kai A. Konrad (*1961) studied economics at Heidelberg and Munich. He was a chaired Professor of Economics at the Free University of Berlin from 1994 to 2009 and simultaneously a Director at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) from 2001 to 2009. Since 2008 he is a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society. He is currently the Managing Director at the Max Planck Institute of Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich. He is also a honorary professor at the University of Munich and a research professor at the Social Science Research Center in Berlin. Since 2011 he is the Chairman of the Council of Scientific Advisors to the German Federal Ministry of Finance.