President Alexander Van der Bellen at WIFO

Kurt Bayer started his lecture, which numerous companions listened to with interest, with the hypothesis that the Western hegemony of the global economic order is coming to an end: both institutionally (characteristic of the withdrawal of the United States from international agreements through its "America first" strategy) and in terms of content. According to Bayer, the global financial market and economic crisis since 2008 at the latest has reduced the attractiveness of the Western model for other countries. But the rise of China, India, Brazil and other emerging markets also points to the success of other approaches. In the future, a multipolar economic (dis)order will take its place, in which the West will have to accept that other value systems also have their legitimacy. Defining its own interests and a strategy based on them is a task for which the European Union, as one of the three or four major blocs, has not yet prepared sufficiently.

Kurt Bayer was a senior researcher at WIFO from 1971 to 1995, focusing on industrial economics, policy evaluation, environmental economics and technology policy. After holding several positions in Germany and abroad, including at the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank, Bayer returned to WIFO after retirement as an Emeritus Consultant.