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Damian RAESS

Professor of International Political Economy, Head of the Bachelor in International Relations

Damian RAESS

Professor of International Political Economy, Head of the Bachelor in International Relations
damian.raess@univ-catholille.fr

Biography

Damian Raess is Professor of International Political Economy at ESPOL (European School of Political and Social Sciences), Catholic University of Lille. He is responsible for the Bachelor’s degree in International Relations.

He grew up in French-speaking Switzerland and is a graduate of the University of Lausanne (BA in Political Science). He received his MA in International Relations and PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. He was a visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007-2008) and Harvard University (2008-2009), and a lecturer at the University of Geneva (2010-2015) and the University of Reading (2016). Between 2017-2022, he held a SNSF research Professorship at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern. He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, University of Geneva (2021-2023), Graduate Institute (Geneva), and KU Leuven.

Raess’s current research projects investigate how trade can contribute to sustainable development. He examines the two principal institutions governing labor standards through trade – preferential trade agreements and private regulation through corporate codes of conduct in global supply chains. More generally, his research interests include global economic integration, labor rights and industrial relations, and democratic politics. The key question of that research is if and how globalization, labor protection, and democracy can be rendered compatible or even mutually reinforcing.

Raess is the author of the Labor Provisions in Trade Agreements dataset (LABPTA), which is the most comprehensive and fine-grained mapping of labor provisions in preferential trade agreements (1990-2015). A new version of the LABPTA dataset, updated to the end of 2021, will be published in the course of 2023. He has provided consultant services for analyzing labor provisions in trade agreements for the European Free Trade Association, the EU Parliament, and the World Bank.

Languages spoken: French, English, German

 

CLASSES TAUGHT AT ESPOL:

  • International Political Economy (Licence 2 et Licence 3)
  • Global and European Political Economy (Master 2)
  • Trade and Sustainable Development (Master 1)

 

RESEARCH FIELDS:

  • Foreign economic policy (trade, investment, aid)
  • Labor rights, sustainable social development
  • Globalization and democratic politics
  • Transnational private regulation
  • Business cycles and fiscal policy
  • Emerging market economies (Brazil, China, BRICS)

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

Peer-reviewed articles

  1. Wagner, P. and Raess, D. (2023). South to North Investment Linkages and Decent Work in Brazil. LABOUR 37(1): 122-159. https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.12239 (open access)
  2. Raess, D. (2023). Globalization and Austerity: Flipping Partisan Effects on Fiscal Policy During (Recent) International Crises. Political Studies 71(2): 332-358. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217211015811 (available access)
  3. Raess, D., Ren, W. and Wagner, P. (2022). Hidden Strings Attached? Chinese (Commercially Oriented) Foreign Aid and International Political Realignment. Foreign Policy Analysis 18(3), July, orac010. https://doi.org/10.1093/fpa/orac010
  4. Carrère, C., Olarreaga, M., and Raess, D. (2022). Labor clauses in trade agreements: Hidden protectionism?. Review of International Organizations 17(3): 453-483. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-021-09423-3 (open access)
  5. Raess, D. (2021). The demand-side politics of China’s global buying spree: managers’ attitudes toward Chinese Inward FDI Flows in comparative perspective. Review of International Political Economy 28(6): 1555-1581. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1778503 (contact author for free eprint)

Book chapter

  1. Raess, D. (2022). Evidence on the Impact of Labor Provisions in Preferential Trade Agreements. In K.A. Elliott (Ed.), Handbook on Globalization and Labour Standards. Edward Elgar (pp. 226-243). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788977371

Blog posts

  1. Raess, D. (2021). Left-wing austerity during international crises – it’s the financial markets, stupid!. The Loop (ECPR’s Political Science blog), 9 August. https://theloop.ecpr.eu/left-wing-austerity-during-international-crises/
  2. Raess, D. (2021). Are social clauses really just hidden protectionism?. Social Europe, 18 June. https://socialeurope.eu/are-social-clauses-really-just-hidden-protectionism
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