Lennart Kaplan leads the DFG-funded project “Aid for Sustainable Trade,” which examines the causal effects of Aid for Trade on trade, the environment, and household welfare, and will collaborate closely with the Center for Foreign Trade Research. His research focuses on geoeconomics and sustainable value chains, particularly the effects of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and China’s role in Africa.

He studied economics and political science in Göttingen, Groningen, and Warsaw and earned his Ph.D. from Georg-August University of Göttingen and Heidelberg University. From 2019 to 2025, he served as a postdoctoral researcher at IDOS Bonn and the University of Göttingen, with research stays at Harvard and the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research. His research employs empirical microeconometric methods; he worked on China’s role in Africa as part of a joint externally funded project with the Kiel Institute and is currently a member of the “China Initiative.”