Lennart C. Kaplan

My name is Lennart - I am a development economist focusing on international trade and development finance. Particularly, I am interested in the socio-economic effects and the political economy of development. For this purpose, I utilize a broad range of methods and data (geospatial data, primary data collection in the Global South). Regarding the latter, I also have a strong interest in the ethical underpinnings of development research and the research-policy nexus. In that respect, I am co-organizing the Digital Development Dialogue (3D) seminar series ( with my colleague Sarah Langlotz, Uni Göttingen), which brings together development practice and research in a digestible format. 

Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at Göttingen University's Chair of Development Economics and Global Political Economy and guest researcher at RWI Essen. Moreover, I am an associate researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability, where I also worked previously.

Previously, I studied in Göttingen, Groningen and Warsaw, and was a member of the research training group Globalization and Development.  Within this group, I wrote my dissertation Perils and Promises of Globalization in Heidelberg and Göttingen under the supervision of Prof. Axel Dreher, Prof. Stephan Klasen, Prof. Krisztina Kis-Katos and Prof. Martin Gassebner. In addition to working as a consultant for the World Bank, I acquired practical experience at the European Parliament in Brussels and at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).