Ulrich VOLZ

Professor
SOAS University

Ulrich Volz is a Professor in Economics at SOAS University of London and Founding Director of the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the German Development Institute and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig. At SOAS, he previously served as Head of the Department of Economics and Member of the University’s Executive Board. Ulrich Volz is Chairman of the Japan Economy Network and Co-editor-in-chief of the Asia Europe Journal. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Asian Development Bank Institute and the Board of Sufinda, the Sustainable Financial Data Initiative. He is a lead author of a 2018 report commissioned by UN Environment on Climate Change and the Cost of Capital in Developing Countries and a co-editor of the recently published Routledge Handbook of Banking and Finance in Asia. He is currently Principle Investigator of an INSPIRE grant on “Climate Risk and Sovereign Risk in Southeast Asia: Exploring the Connections and Implications for Financial and Monetary Authorities”. He is also a Co-Investigator in an ESRC-funded collaborative research project with Nankai University and Zhejiang University on “Developing Financial Systems to Support Sustainable Growth in China – The Role of Innovation, Diversity and Financial Regulation”. Ulrich Volz was the 2017 FFJ/Banque de France Chair at EHESS in Paris. He also taught at Peking University, Kobe University, Hertie School of Governance, Freie Universität Berlin, Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO) in Tokyo. He spent stints working at the European Central Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, ECB, Bank Indonesia, and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Ulrich Volz holds a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin and was a Fox International Fellow and Max Kade Scholar at Yale University. He was part of the UN Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and has acted as an advisor to several governments, central banks, international organisations and development agencies on matters of sustainable finance and development.

Research themes: International Finance, Open Economy Macroeconomics, Financial Market Development and Stability, Development and Transition Economics, Global Economic Governance, East Asian Financial Markets