A minimum tax on the ultra-wealthy – curse or blessing?
19/January/2026
1:00 PM CET
PLACE
Zoom
LANGUAGE
Englisch
Parisian economist Gabriel Zucman has caused a stir far beyond France’s borders with his proposal to tax the super-rich. His idea to tax assets worth more than €100 million at a rate of at least two per cent has met with widespread approval in France. However, opponents of the ‘Zucman tax’ argue that it would increase the risk of capital flight and discourage investment.
Zucman discusses the pros and cons with Jens Südekum, chief advisor to Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil in our next New Economy Short Cut:
A minimum tax on the ultra-wealthy – curse or blessing?
With Gabriel Zucman, Paris School of Economics,
Jens Südekum, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
On Monday, 19 January 2026, at 11:30 a.m. – via Zoom. Register here.
Gabriel Zucman
is a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founding director of the EU Tax Observatory, headquartered in Paris, France. His research focuses on the accumulation, distribution, and taxation of global income and wealth. In 2023, Professor Zucman received the John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association, awarded to an economist under forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.
Jens Südekum
is Professor of International Economics at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and of the Foreign Trade Advisory Council of the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia. Südekum is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Since 2025, he has served as the personal envoy of Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil for overall macroeconomic development.