Michael Grömling studied economics and received his PhD in economics from the University of Würzburg, Germany. He has been with the Cologne Institute for Economic Research since 1996 and is head of the research group on business cycle analysis and editor of IW-Trends. Since 2006 he has also been working as professor for economics at the International University of Applied Sciences, Bad Honnef/Bonn. He is chairman of the section on business and market statistics and member of the extended board of the German Statistical Society. His favoured fields of research are business cycles, structural change and national accounting.