Mathias Thoenig is a Distinguished Research Scholar at IMD. He serves as Professor of Economics at the School of Business and Economics (HEC) at the University of Lausanne, a CEPR Research Fellow in the international trade and macro programs, and an elected council member of the European Economic Association.
Thoenig has published extensively in academic journals, including American Economic Review, Econometrica, Harvard Business Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies. He has served on the editorial boards of Journal of European Economic Association and International Economics.
His research lies at the intersection of international economics and political economy of development. In a series of influential papers, he studies the relationship between international trade and armed conflicts and how the global architecture of trade agreements is shaped by conflict risk. He has also analyzed the conditions under which trade can build and cement trust, or its opposite, foster conflict. His current research agenda focuses on democratization, violence-induced migration, and post-conflict reconciliation. He uses cutting-edge quantitative analysis to form policy-relevant predictions for conflict containment. Many questions addressed in his papers are particularly high on the policy agendas of international agencies and NGOs that pursue the joint objectives of peace and development.
In 2011, Thoenig was nominated for the Best Young Economist of France Award, an annual award given by daily newspaper Le Monde and Cercle des économistes to French economists under the age of 40.
He is the recipient of a highly competitive research grant from the European Research Council (ERC grant) for his work on the role of distrust and grievances in ethnic conflicts. Thoenig is a regular academic consultant to the World Bank and other development agencies. He is a passionate and award-winning teacher, a dedicated provider of public goods, and a fervent mentor of junior colleagues.
Thoenig received his PhD in economics from University Paris Sorbonne and his Bachelor of Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique (France). He has held visiting appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, International Monetary Fund, Sciences Po Paris, University of British Columbia, and Pompeu Fabra University.