Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch
Professor, Department of Economics, Kiel University
Director of Research Area "International Finance", Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Founder of the Geoeconomics Initiative in Kiel (since 2022) and the Kiel-CEPR Geoeconomics conference
Founder of the Ukraine Support Tracker
PI, ERC Consolidator Grant "International Finance and the Great Powers, 1800-2020"
My Google Scholar page
Please contact me via email: christoph.trebesch@ifw-kiel.de
News and recent developments:
I won the 2024 Gossen Award for internationally recognized research achievements of German economists under the age of 45.
I won a 2023 ERC Consolidator Grant on "International Finance and the Great Powers, 1800-2020" (Great.Power.Finance) studying how geopolitics has shaped global capital flows and investor returns over the past 200 years. Specifically, I ask: How does geopolitics and great power rivalry determine the level, composition and direction of international capital flows? How do geopolitical shocks such as wars affect financial returns and how can investors hedge against these risks?
In 2022, I founded the Geoeconomics Initiative in Kiel and launched the Kiel-CEPR Geoeconomics Conference, which is now in its 4th year and has become the leading global conference on the topic. Stay tuned for the 2025 program!
In April 2022, I launched the Ukraine Support Tracker, which has become a global reference point on Ukraine aid and is regularly discussed at G7 or NATO meetings.
In 2024, we launched a new, rigorous PhD program at the Kiel Institute. I am the Founding Dean of this new "Kiel Advanced Studies Program". We could attract two great first cohorts as well as outsanding external lecturers. Please spread the word!
In 2024 and 2025, I co-organized a high-level event at the Munich Security Conference - Guns vs Butter in the 21st Century and How to Finance Europe's Rearmament
Between 2022 and 2024 I lead the CEPR Network on International Lending and Sovereign Debt and hosted a monthly Webinar on the topic
Recent Research:
Hegemonic Globalization, with Fernando Broner, Alberto Martin and Josefin Meyer, 2025
Geoeconomics - with Cathrin Mohr, 2025, the first survey paper on this booming field, forthcoming in the Annual Review of Economics
Sovereign Debt: A Data Survey - I prepared a broad-based survey for the NBER Summer Institute 2023
China as an International Lender of Last Resort, with Sebastian Horn, Brad Parks and Carmen Reinhart, NBER Working Paper 31105
Populist Leaders and the Economy, with Manuel Funke and Moritz Schularick, American Economic Review, 2023
Sovereign Debt in the 21st Century, with Kris Mitchener, Journal of Economic Literature, 2023
Sovereign Bonds since Waterloo, with Josefin Meyer and Carmen Reinhart, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2022
Political Booms, Financial Crises, with Helios Herrera and Guillermo Ordonez, Journal of Political Economy, 2020
Coping with Disasters: Two Centuries of International Official Lending, with Sebastian Horn and Carmen Reinhart, NBER Working Paper 27343
Ukraine Support Tracker: Which countries help Ukraine and how? with Arianna Antezza, André Frank, Pascal Frank, Lukas Franz and Ekaterina Reinskaya. Paper and regularly updated database here