Friedhelm Pfeiffer studied economics at the Universities of Freiburg i. Br., Bern (Switzerland) and Mannheim. He is a senior researcher at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and a lecturer at the University of Mannheim, Department of Economics. For his research on the determinants of self-employment and on wage rigidities in the German system of wage determination he received several scientific awards, among others the Wolfgang-Ritter Award.