Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch
Professor, Department of Economics, Kiel University
Director of Research Area "International Finance", Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Co-Founder of the Geoeconomics Initiative in Kiel and of the CEPR Geoeconomics RPN
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:
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?
I co-founded the CEPR Research and Policy Network on Geoeconomics in 2023. The Berlin launch conference was held on Nov 30. 2023. In 2024, we hosted the 3rd annual Kiel-CEPR Geoeconmic conference
I am leading the CEPR Network on International Lending and Sovereign Debt and host a monthly Webinar on the topic
In 2024, we launched a new, rigorous PhD program at the Kiel Institute. I currently act as the Dean of this new "Kiel Advanced Studies Program". We could attract a great first cohort as well as outsanding external lecturers
Recent Research:
Hegemonic Globalization, with Fernando Broner, Alberto Martin and Josefin Meyer, 2025
Geoeconomics - new survey paper on this small but booming field, with Cathrin Mohr, 2025
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, 2024
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:
February 2024. We organized a high-level event at the Munich Security Conference - Guns vs Butter in the 21st Century
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