Valentin Lang

Valentin Lang is an Assistant Professor of International Political Economy and Development at the University of Mannheim. He has previously held academic positions at the universities of Zurich, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Paris, and has worked for international organizations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). His research bridges political science and economics, focusing on global governance, international integration and disintegration, the political economy of international institutions, electoral responses to globalization and migration, and economic inequality.

His work employs advanced statistical methods for causal inference and has been published in leading journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, American Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Politics. His research has been featured in major media outlets including The Economist, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, FAZ, and Politico, and has been presented to institutions such as the European Commission and the IMF, influencing policy discussions and even prompting a parliamentary question in the European Parliament.

The recent publications highlight a consistent focus on the political and economic consequences of globalization, institutional design in international organizations, inequality, and migration. His research often combines empirical rigor with policy relevance, particularly in the context of the European Union. Key themes include the ideological biases within international bureaucracies, the effectiveness of foreign aid, the distributional impacts of economic crises, and the reform of EU cohesion policy.

• Bojanovsky Prize for research on empirical models of social processes (June 2025)
• PPE Young Scholars Award for Social and Institutional Change (2025)
• Invited to ERC Starting Grants interview panel (June 2025)
• Over 1,000 citations on Google Scholar (June 2025)
• Research published in top journals in political science and economics

Lang actively advises on policy and engages with public discourse. He has collaborated on research concerning EU regional policy reform and the impact of international financial institutions. He has no listed advisees in the provided material. He is a prominent voice in the academic discussion on globalization, inequality, and international institutions, with a strong record of both scholarly impact and public engagement.