Robert J. Aumann, Nobel Prize winner for Economy in 2005, has insisted in Barcelona today that the candidates to the Presidency of the Spanish Government undertake a serious policy of tax reduction to take Spain out of the crisis and to generate employment. “To reduce taxes is not a neo-liberal mandate, it goes much further than any policy, it is pure logic – stated  Aumann-; if you increase taxes you encourage tax payers to cheat and to reduce their tax paying activities. If you lower taxes, you favour tax collection and end up by collecting more”. Aumann made these statements prior to his induction as Corresponding Member for Israel of the Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras of Spain (RACEF).

On the subject of the sovereign debt affecting the EU, the new Academy Member called for auto-regulation, with moderate intervention of European Institutions, the principal member states and the European Central Bank. “Europe is sending the message to Greece and other countries with problems, as well as to financial entities who have adopted risky practices, that it will always be there to come to the rescue. This is a mistaken policy which can only solve the problem in the short term” he added.

The entry of Aumann coincided with the opening of the Academic year of the RACEF. The Nobel Prize Winner read his speech “War and Peace: the fundamental role of incentives in game theory and economics analysis” where he explained the economic and political application of the games theory, which led to his winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2005. The President of the RACEF, Jaime Gil Aluja, replied to his speech.