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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.

  • News

    08.10.2026

    NATO response force or North Atlantic Treaty Organization armored crawler tanks and other military vehicles on the road, close up

    Ukraine Support Tracker: only EUR 41.7 billion of Germany’s EUR 100 billion went to Ukraine

  • News

    13.08.2026

    Patriot surface-to-air missile system

    Ukraine Support Tracker: Europe leads on aid – US weapons remain key

  • News

    25.06.2026

    Russian tank destroyed

    Wars and military threats disrupt sovereign bond markets

Upcoming Events

  • 30 Oct 2026

    Hamburg-Kiel Lecture on Global Economic Affairs

    Dani Rodrik: Populism, the Globalization Backlash, and Remedies

    Universität Hamburg, Hauptgebäude

    With registration

Past Events

  • 30 Oct 2026

    Hamburg-Kiel Lecture on Global Economic Affairs

    Dani Rodrik: Populism, the Globalization Backlash, and Remedies

    Universität Hamburg, Hauptgebäude

    With registration

  • 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

  • Research Group

    Research Group Trebesch