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About us

Our responsibility for sustainable globalization

We be­lieve that there are large gains from trade lib­er­al­iza­tion. At the same time, we also rec­og­nize that trade lib­er­al­iza­tion has not be­come un­pop­u­lar in­ex­plic­a­bly. Some in­di­vid­u­als suf­fer sig­nif­i­cant­ly be­cause of trade lib­er­al­iza­tion and mod­ern trade agree­ments reach far be­yond tra­di­tion­al tar­iff pol­i­cy. Our task is there­fore to re­think our world trad­ing sys­tem to pave the way for a more sus­tain­able glob­al­iza­tion.

The Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics is a re­search cen­ter based on a long-term co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the Kühne Foun­da­tion and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. It aims to es­tab­lish it­self as a thought leader on is­sues sur­round­ing eco­nom­ic glob­al­iza­tion – by con­duct­ing rel­e­vant re­search and mak­ing its in­sights avail­able to a broad au­di­ence. With­in the frame­work of this sup­port, the free­dom of teach­ing and re­search at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich re­mains ful­ly guar­an­teed.

At the core of the cen­ter is the Kühne Foun­da­tion Pro­fes­sor­ship of In­ter­na­tion­al Trade. It is cur­rent­ly held by Pro­fes­sor Ralph Ossa who is a lead­ing ex­pert on trade pol­i­cy. His re­search spans a broad range of ques­tions with an em­pha­sis on the eco­nom­ics of trade wars and trade talks.

More­over, the cen­ter is home to a num­ber of af­fil­i­at­ed re­searchers, who are full mem­bers of the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics while they car­ry out their re­search. They all fo­cus on re­search projects with­in the scope of the cen­ter’s mis­sion: to gath­er re­li­able and well-found­ed in­for­ma­tion and present new an­swers to the chal­lenges fac­ing glob­al trade.

Researchers

M. Scott Taylor

Director of the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Pro­fes­sor Tay­lor is a high­ly ac­com­plished and re­spect­ed econ­o­mist who has made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the fields of in­ter­na­tion­al, en­er­gy and en­vi­ron­men­tal eco­nom­ics for close to 30 years. He has been rec­og­nized for his pi­o­neer­ing work on the re­la­tion­ship be­tween trade, the en­vi­ron­ment, and re­new­able re­sources, and has used in­no­v­a­tive meth­ods and data to eval­u­ate pre­vi­ous­ly un­ex­plored hy­pothe­ses. Through­out his ca­reer, Pro­fes­sor Tay­lor has held pro­mi­nent po­si­tions at sev­er­al uni­ver­si­ties and re­search in­sti­tu­tions, and has pub­lished his re­search in lead­ing aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals.

Pri­or to mov­ing to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­gary, he served on the fac­ul­ty of the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Co­lum­bia and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin (Madi­son). He holds a PhD in Eco­nom­ics from Queens’s Uni­ver­si­ty, Cana­da.

Research Interests

Environmental and Resource Economics and International Trade

Personal Homepage

M. Scott Taylor’s homepage

Ralph Ossa

Kühne Foundation Professor of International Trade

Short Bio

Ralph Ossa holds the Kühne Foun­da­tion Pro­fes­sor­ship of In­ter­na­tion­al Trade. He has also been Chief Econ­o­mist of the World Trade Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WTO) since Jan­u­ary 2023 and was pre­vi­ous­ly Di­rec­tor of the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. His re­search fo­cus­es on in­ter­na­tion­al eco­nom­ics with a par­tic­u­lar em­pha­sis on ques­tions of pol­i­cy rel­e­vance. For ex­am­ple, he has ex­plored the eco­nom­ics of trade wars and trade talks and es­ti­mat­ed how much coun­tries gain from in­ter­na­tion­al trade. For his project “Deep In­te­gra­tion Agree­ments”, Ossa re­ceived an ERC Con­sol­ida­tor Grant from the Eu­ro­pean Re­search Coun­cil. He is Co-Ed­i­tor of the Jour­nal of In­ter­na­tion­al Eco­nom­ics.

Pri­or to mov­ing to Zurich, he served on the fac­ul­ty of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chi­ca­go Booth School of Busi­ness. He holds a PhD in Eco­nom­ics from the Lon­don School of Eco­nom­ics.

Research Interests

International Trade, Economic Geography, and Economic Development

Personal Homepage

Prof. Ossa’s homepage at the Department of Economics UZH

Michael Blanga-Gubbay

Senior Research Fellow at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Michael Blan­ga-Gub­bay is a Post­doc­tor­al Re­searcher at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich (UZH), De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics and an Af­fil­i­at­ed Mem­ber at the Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. Blan­ga-Gub­bay holds a Ph.D. in Eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­sité Li­bre de Brux­elles - the Eu­ro­pean Cen­ter for Ad­vanced Re­search in Eco­nom­ics and Sta­tis­tics (ECARES). He holds a Bach­e­lor and a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Eco­nom­ics and So­cial Sci­ences from Boc­coni Uni­ver­si­ty in Mi­lan; and a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Quan­ti­ta­tive Eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­sité Li­bre de Brux­elles. Dur­ing his Ph.D., Blan­ga-Gub­bay spent the 2018-2019 aca­d­e­m­ic year at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty, and the 2019-2020 aca­d­e­m­ic year at Boc­coni Uni­ver­si­ty.

Research Interests

International trade and Political Economics

Personal Homepage

Blanga-Gubbay’s homepage

Roza Khoban

Senior Research Fellow at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Roza Khoban holds an PHD in Eco­nom­ics of Stock­holm Uni­ver­si­ty. She is af­fil­i­at­ed with the Kiel In­sti­tute for the World Econ­o­my as well as Se­nior Re­search Fel­low at the Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich.

Research Interests

International Economics, Development Economics, Political Economy ans Applied Econometrics

Personal Homepage

Roza Khoban’s homepage

Mathilde Le Moigne

Senior Research Fellow at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Mathilde Le Moigne is a Post­doc­tor­al Re­searcher at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zürich (UZH), De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics and an Af­fil­i­at­ed Mem­ber at the Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics. She holds a PHD in Eco­nom­ics from Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty as well as an MSc in Eco­nom­ics from the Paris School of Eco­nom­ics and an MA in So­cial Sci­ences from ENS Paris.

Research Interests

International Trade, Labor Economics, Macroeconomics and Industrial Organization

Personal Homepage

Mathilde Le Moigne’s homepage at the Department of Economics UZH

Simon Lepot

Senior Research Fellow at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Si­mon Lep­ot is an aca­d­e­m­ic physi­cist by train­ing. He has a strong knowl­edge in math­e­mat­i­cal mod­el­ling, nu­mer­i­cal sim­u­la­tion, and data analy­sis. His train­ing fo­cused on sta­tis­ti­cal physics and its math­e­mat­i­cal and nu­mer­i­cal tools, ap­plied to flu­id me­chan­ics. He grad­u­at­ed at Uni­ver­sité Paris-Saclay. His role at the Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics in­volves the de­vel­op­ment and im­ple­men­ta­tion of a “Sus­tain­able Glob­al­iza­tion In­dex” mea­sur­ing the dis­crep­an­cy be­tween cur­rent trade flows, and a glob­al trade sys­tem that would in­ter­nal­ize the car­bon cost of pro­duc­tion and trans­por­ta­tion.

Research Interests

International Economics, Development Economics, Political Economy and Applied Econometrics

Marcos Ritel

Assistant Professor of International Trade at the Kühne Logistics University

Affiliated researcher at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Mar­cos Ri­tel is an As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor of In­ter­na­tion­al Trade at the Kühne Lo­gis­tics Uni­ver­si­ty since Sep­tem­ber 2020. He is also an af­fil­i­at­ed re­searcher at the Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. He re­ceived his PhD in Eco­nom­ics from the Sao Paulo School of Eco­nom­ics - FGV in Brazil in 2020. Dur­ing his grad­u­ate stud­ies he vis­it­ed the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich as an SNSF Ex­cel­lence in Re­search Schol­ar­ship Hold­er. He was also a PhD in­tern at the head­quar­ters of the World Trade Or­ga­ni­za­tion in Gene­va, where he con­duct­ed pol­i­cy-ori­ent­ed re­search.

Research Interests

International Trade and Trade Policy

Personal Homepage

Marcos Ritel’s homepage at the KLU in Hamburg

Yuan Zi

Senior Research Fellow at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics at the University of Zurich

Short Bio

Yuan Zi is an As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oslo and an af­fil­i­at­ed mem­ber of the Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic and Pol­i­cy Re­search (CEPR). She is also Af­fil­i­at­ed Se­nior Re­searcher at the Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich since Jan­u­ary 2021. She re­ceived her PhD in In­ter­na­tion­al Eco­nom­ics at the Grad­u­ate In­sti­tute of In­ter­na­tion­al and De­vel­op­ment Stud­ies (IHEID).

Research Interests

International Trade, Economic Geography and Economic Development

Personal Homepage

Yuan Zi’s personal homepage

Former members at the Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics

Emily Blanchard

Guest Professor at Kühne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics, Associate Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a Research Fellow with the Center for Economic Policy Research, joining the Center as a Visiting Fellow for the academic year 2019/20

Contact

For general requests as well as for
press inquiries and requests as a speaker

Michèle Him­mel­rich
Phone+41 44 634 55 78
E-Mailmichele.him­mel­rich@econ.uzh.ch
 
Of­fice hoursMon­day to Thurs­day
Of­ficeSOF-G-29
 
Ad­dress

Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich
Kühne Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Trade and Lo­gis­tics

Schön­berggasse 1
CH-8001 Zurich

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