About

Who I am

I am Erik van der Marel, Senior Economist at the European Center for International Political Economy (ECIPE) where I spend half of my time. Besides this job, I am also Associate Professor at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management lecturing the course International Trade and Development in the MSc program. At the same time, I am also a Consultant Economist for the World Bank in Washington DC.

My area of specialization is international trade. In particular, my expertise is in emerging and intangible trade, such as trade in services, digital trade, as well as cross-border data flows. I am doing analyses in all of these trade fields and I provide policy recommendations on the basis of my own research. I also teach targeted capacity building classes for Ministries and policy makers for both developed and developing countries.

Working in Brussels keeps me with one foot in the EU bubble. But, given that I have worked with the World Bank for more than 8 years now, I also keep an eye on developing countries. I have a PhD in International Economics from Sciences-Po Paris and have previously lectured as a full-time Fellow Lecturer at the London School of Economics, also in the MSc program. Before that, I have also taught at Sciences-Po Paris during my PhD program.

Regarding my previous work, I have gained professional experience as a consultant for the European Commission (DG Internal Market and Financial Services), the OECD, APEC and Asian Development Bank. My writings range from papers to peer-reviewed journal articles (also review articles for journals), as well as book chapters and country reports on international trade. I am currently managing ECIPE's Digital Trade Restrictiveness Index (DTRI).

Read more here about my thoughts on trade, economics and technology on my blog called Bruxenomics!