David Bruce Audretsch (born November 15, 1954) is an American economist. He is a distinguished professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University and also serves as director of the SPEA International Office, Ameritech Chair of Economic Development, and director of SPEA's Institute for Development Strategies (IDS). He is co-founder and co-editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal, and also works as a consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, the EU Commission, and the U.S. Department of State. He was the Director of the Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany from 2003 to 2009. Since 2020, he also serves as a Distinguished Professor in the Department of