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Research Director

Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch

Research Director

Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch

Research Center

> Personal website with full list of publications.

Christoph Trebesch is Director of the Research Center on International Finance at the Kiel Institute and Professor of Macroeconomics at Kiel University. He is the founding Director of the Kiel Initiative on Geoeconomics and serves as Principal Investigator in the ERC project Great.Power.Finance and in the Excellence Cluster SCRIPTS. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the German Ministry of Finance.

His research lies at the intersection of international finance, macroeconomics, economic history, and political economy. He is an expert on sovereign debt, financial crises, China’s role in global finance, and the economics of populism. His current research focuses on geoeconomics. In 2021, he launched the Kiel Initiative on Geoeconomics. In addition, he developed the widely cited Ukraine Support Tracker, measuring military and financial aid to Ukraine.

In 2024, Trebesch received the Gossen Prize by the German Economic Association, which honors outstanding German economists under the age of 45. In 2023, he was awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for his project “International Finance and the Great Powers, 1800–2020”.

Trebesch received his doctorate from Free University Berlin in 2011, for which he was awarded the Ernst Reuter Prize. He then joined the University of Munich as Assistant Professor in 2011, before moving to Kiel in 2017 as Full Professor and Director at the Kiel Institute. He has been a visiting researcher at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and has served as consultant and advisor to the IMF, World Bank, United Nations, and the U.S. Treasury. His work is regularly featured in leading international media outlets, including The New York Times, The Economist, or the Financial Times.

Topics

International FinanceEconomic & Financial CrisesFiscal Policy & National Budgets

Main research interests

  • Sovereign Debt and Default
  • Political Economy
  • International Capital Flows
  • International Financial Institutions
  • Geopolitics and Economics
  • Financial Stability and Financial Crises

Contact

+49 (431) 8814-577

> Personal website with full list of publications.

Christoph Trebesch is Director of the Research Center on International Finance at the Kiel Institute and Professor of Macroeconomics at Kiel University. He is the founding Director of the Kiel Initiative on Geoeconomics and serves as Principal Investigator in the ERC project Great.Power.Finance and in the Excellence Cluster SCRIPTS. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the German Ministry of Finance.

His research lies at the intersection of international finance, macroeconomics, economic history, and political economy. He is an expert on sovereign debt, financial crises, China’s role in global finance, and the economics of populism. His current research focuses on geoeconomics. In 2021, he launched the Kiel Initiative on Geoeconomics. In addition, he developed the widely cited Ukraine Support Tracker, measuring military and financial aid to Ukraine.

In 2024, Trebesch received the Gossen Prize by the German Economic Association, which honors outstanding German economists under the age of 45. In 2023, he was awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for his project “International Finance and the Great Powers, 1800–2020”.

Trebesch received his doctorate from Free University Berlin in 2011, for which he was awarded the Ernst Reuter Prize. He then joined the University of Munich as Assistant Professor in 2011, before moving to Kiel in 2017 as Full Professor and Director at the Kiel Institute. He has been a visiting researcher at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and has served as consultant and advisor to the IMF, World Bank, United Nations, and the U.S. Treasury. His work is regularly featured in leading international media outlets, including The New York Times, The Economist, or the Financial Times.

  • Project

    The then Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa visits China, 14 - 15 Jul 2015

    China in Africa: Exploring the Consequences for Economic and Social Development

    The research project studies the effects that China’s growing economic engagement has on African economies, and how China’s economic presence is…

  • Project

    Cluster for Economic Research on Africa

    The Cluster for Economic Research on Africa focuses on enterprises and entrepreneurial potential in African markets, trade and investment policy, and…

  • News

    10.12.2025

    Pallets of 155mm artillery ammunition

    Ukraine Support Tracker: Europe fails to offset US aid drop

    New aid allocations in 2025 might drop to their lowest level since the outbreak of the war in 2022. Europe allocated only about EUR 4.2 billion in new…

  • News

    16.10.2025

    Railway construction

    New database brings transparency to Africa’s public debt

    The Kiel Institute for the World Economy presents a major collaborative project: The African Debt Database (ADD)—a globally unique dataset on the…

  • News

    14.10.2025

    soldier standing under the rain near an armoured tank, NATO response force

    Ukraine Support Tracker: Military aid falls sharply despite new NATO initiative

    Military aid to Ukraine saw a sharp decline in July and August 2025, despite the introduction of NATO’s Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL)…

Upcoming Events

Past Events

  • 10 Jul

    2025

    Workshop

    Geoeconomics

    Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Standort Berlin

  • 22 – 24 May

    2025

    Verein für Socialpolitik

    Annual Meeting 2025 - Standing Field Committee in International Economics

    Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft

  • 15 Feb

    2025

    Munich Security Conference 2025

    A Conversation on Military Finance: How to Finance Europe’s Rearmament?

    Hotel Bayerischer Hof

In the News

Research Center & Groups

  • Research Center

    International Finance