Kurt Rothschild is responding to the following questions:

Where and when did you study economics? And who were your role models and mentors?

You have lived through many changes in economic theory – indeed you have influenced some of them. How do you assess the current state of economic theory?

And is the mathematicisation the only factor involved in the dominance of what's called mainstream economics?

Do you see differences between German-speaking countries and the English-speaking world – especially the USA – in terms of their reception of economic theory? And do you see any convergence or divergence within the German-speaking world?

Would you say that economics used to be more progressive than it is now? Or would you agree with Joan Robinson, who once said "Ever since I have been involved with economics, it’s been in crisis"?

In the epilogue to your most recent book, Die politischen Visionen großer Ökonomen, you quote Keynes's biographer Robert Skidelsky as saying that we need a new Keynes. You then add "That’s a tough demand to meet". Is that a call for Keynesian economic theory and policy?

What contribution do you think Austria has made to economic theory?

I would like to ask about current economic policy in 2004. In Germany and, increasingly, in Austria, structural reform of the labour market is seen as the magic bullet that will solve unemployment. But can structural reform ever create jobs? And even if it can, is it meaningful or desirable to create employment in that way?

You have been writing more and more about Europe. What do you see as the consequences of the EU enlargement we saw May 2004?

A long time ago, you published an essay entitled The Discreet Charm of Neo-Liberalism. Would you say that over recent years, neo-liberalism has lost some of that charm?