About the Author
Dr. Kristian Niemietz joined the IEA in 2008 as Poverty Research Fellow, becoming its Senior Research Fellow in 2013 and Head of Health and Welfare in 2015. Kristian is also a Fellow of the Age Endeavour Fellowship.
He studied Economics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Universidad de Salamanca, graduating in 2007 as Diplom-Volkswirt (≈MSc in Economics). During his studies, he interned at the Central Bank of Bolivia (2004), the National Statistics Office of Paraguay (2005), and at the IEA (2006). In 2013, he completed a PhD in Political Economy at King’s College London. Kristian previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Berlin-based Institute for Free Enterprise (IUF), and at King's College London, where he taught Economics throughout his postgraduate studies. He is a regular contributor to various journals in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
What are your research areas?
Socialism, healthcare, housing, pensions, trade
What is a quote you would like to share?
“[A]fter seventy years of experience with socialism, it is safe to say that most intellectuals [...] remain [...] unwilling to wonder whether there might not be a reason why socialism, as often as it is attempted, never seems to work out as its intellectual leaders intended. The intellectuals’ vain search for a truly socialist community [...] results in the idealisation of, and then disillusionment with, a seemingly endless string of ‘utopias’ – the Soviet Union, then Cuba, China, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Tanzania, Nicaragua.”
-F. A. Hayek (1988)
What are your book recommendations?
"Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba 1928–1979" by Paul Hollander
"Why We Bite the Invisible Hand: The Psychology of Anti-Capitalism" by Peter Foster
"The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt
One law you would change:
The UK’s 1947 Town and Country Planning Act (which I’d abolish)
What is your favorite movie?
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
