Eckhardt Jappe

Jappe Eckhardt is a Senior Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute (WTI) of the University of Bern. Before joining the WTI he studied political science (BSc political science and MSc international relations) and international economics (Minor) at the University of Amsterdam. After graduating in 2005, he worked as a research and teaching assistant at the same university, as well as for an international relations think tank in Brussels. In 2007 he joined the Political Science Department at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and received his PhD in 2011 with a dissertation entitled “Taking a Firm Stance: The Political Economy of Business Lobbying in EU Trade Policy towards China”. In 2010 he was a visiting researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

His main research interests are the political economy of international trade, EU trade and investment policy, economic relations between Europe (EU) and Asia, interest group politics (in particular firm and trade-association lobbying) and regional trade agreements.