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
Recent Media Coverage and Outreach:
Our Ukraine Support Tracker remains visible worldwide. It has been covered by more than 200 media outlets worldwide including multiple times in The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times etc
April 2023: Our paper on "China as a lender of last resort" was covered by dozens of media outlets including the New York Times, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and the Economist
April 2023: We released the "Africa Debt Database" (download paper and data here), with David Mihalyi
April 2022: Vox.eu column on China’s overseas lending and the war in Ukraine
February 2022: Our paper on "Hidden Defaults" on Chinese debts was covered by The Economist, Handelsblatt, Welt
March 2021: My coauthor and former PhD student Sebastian Horn was invited to testify before U.S. Congress (House Financial Services Committee) and summarized our two joint research papers on China's overseas lending
March 2021: Our paper "How China Lends" was covered by the Economist, Financial Times, Washington Post, Reuters, Spiegel, FAZ, SZ, Die Zeit
March 2021: Vox.eu column on The cost of populism: evidence from history
October 2020: Our paper on populists and the economy was covered by Der Spiegel.
September 2020: "The Debt Pandemic: New steps are needed", IMF Finance & Development (with Bulow, Reinhart and Rogoff)
April 2020: Vox.eu column on Coronabonds and the forgotten history of European community debt (based on Kiel Policy Brief)
March 2020: OpEd in Sueddeutsche Zeitung on why Germany can easily borrow now
March 2020: Vox.eu column on disasters and their international response (with Horn and Reinhart)
March 2020: OpEd in FAZ asking for European financial solidarity (with 6 other German economists), also in Le Monde, El Mundo, Fin. Dagblad
March 2020: Piece in LSE Business Review on our paper on political booms gone bust (with Herrera and Ordonez)
February 2020: Piece in Harvard Business Review on Chinese overseas lending (with Horn and Reinhart)
September 2019: OpEd in the FAZ based on our research on Germany's foreign investments and their low returns
2019/2020: Our paper on China's ovserases lending was covered in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NZZ, FAZ, Der Spiegel
June/July 2019: Our paper on the returns on Germany's foreign investments was covered in Die Zeit, FAZ, Süddeutsche, and NZZ
February 2019 column on Project Syndicate on pensions and asset returns (with Carmen Reinhart)
Our paper on sovereign bond returns and haircuts ("Sovereign Bonds since Waterloo") was covered in in NBER Digest, April 2019
as well as in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg and FAZ
September 2018: column in Foreign Affairs on populism and financial crises (with Manuel Funke and Moritz Schularick)
Older, 2015 Portrait in Süddeutsche Zeitung