Christoph Trebesch

Christoph Trebesch is a Professor of Macroeconomics at Kiel University and Director of the Research Center International Finance at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy since April 2017. He also serves as Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the German Ministry of Finance and is a Research Fellow of CEPR and CESifo. In 2024, he became Founding Dean of the new Kiel Advanced Studies Program, a rigorous PhD program at the Kiel Institute.

Trebesch's research focuses on the intersection of international finance, macroeconomics, economic history, and political economy. He is particularly renowned as an expert on sovereign debt, financial and debt crises, China's role in global finance, and the economics of populism. His current main research focus is Geoeconomics, where he has made significant contributions through the Kiel Initiative on Geopolitics and Economics which he founded in 2021/22.

His work has gained substantial recognition, including the prestigious 2024 Gossen Award for internationally recognized research achievements of German economists under 45 and a 2023 ERC Consolidator Grant for his project on 'International Finance and the Great Powers, 1800-2020'. His Ukraine Support Tracker, launched in April 2022, has become a global reference point on Ukraine aid and is regularly discussed at G7 and NATO meetings.

His research has been published in top journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, with notable contributions on sovereign debt, populism, and international financial crises. His work is regularly cited in leading international media such as the New York Times, The Economist, and Financial Times.

• Gossen Award (2024)
• ERC Consolidator Grant (2023)
• CEPR Research Fellow
• CESifo Research Fellow
• Member, Academic Advisory Board, German Ministry of Finance

Trebesch has extensive advisory experience, having served as consultant and/or advisor for the IMF, World Bank, United Nations, US Treasury, and German Ministry of Finance. He has been a visiting researcher at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and the Chicago Fed. He co-organizes the annual Kiel-CEPR Geoeconomics Conference and high-level events at the Munich Security Conference, including 'Guns vs Butter in the 21st Century' and 'How to Finance Europe's Rearmament'.