Ludger Schuknecht is the Head of the Fiscal Policy Surveillance Section at the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany. Before that he was an economist in the Research and Analysis Division of the World Trade Organization in Geneva. He studied economics in Munich, at George Mason University in Virginia, and in Konstanz, Germany. Specializing in international economics and political economy, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz with the thesis, Trade Protection in the European Community (Harwood Academic Publishers, 1992).

He joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1992 and worked in the African and Fiscal Affairs Departments. His most prominent tasks there included helping to build the fiscal administration in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the joint work on government reform with Vito Tanzi. He has published articles on a range of issues, including expenditure, policies, political business cycles, EU trade policy, financial services, trade, and electronic commerce.

Since January 1997, he has been on leave from the IMF to work at the World Trade Organization.

(Bio at the time of publication).