Professor Ulrich Volz

Ulrich Volz is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at SOAS, University of London. 

He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig, and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). 

At SOAS, he previously served as Head of the Department of Economics and Member of the University’s Executive Board. Ulrich is academic director of the University Network for Strengthening Macrofinancial Resilience to Climate and Environmental Change, co-chair of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment, and a co-chair of the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery initiative. He serves on the Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee of the German Federal Government, the Economic Advisory Network of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the advisory panel of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the International Advisory Committee for the Climate/SDGs Debt Swap Mechanism of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA), and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s Research Advisory Council for Inclusive Green Finance.

Ulrich was Banque de France Chair at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and taught at Peking University, Kobe University, Hertie School of Governance, Freie Universität Berlin, Central University of Finance and Economics, and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). He spent stints working at the European Central Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, Aoyama Gakuin University, ECB, Bank Indonesia, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Asian Development Bank Institute, where he previously served on the Advisory Council. 

Ulrich was part of the UN Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, a member of the NGFS-INSPIRE Study Group on Biodiversity and Financial Stability, and a member of the World Bank’s Green Recovery Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Working Group. In 2024, Ulrich was appointed by the Brazilian G20 Presidency to the Group of Experts of the G20 Taskforce on a Global Mobilization against Climate Change (TF-CLIMA). He has acted as an advisor to numerous governments, central banks, international organisations and development agencies on matters of macroeconomic policy, climate risk and sustainable finance, and financial sector development. 

Ulrich obtained a doctorate in economics from Freie Universität Berlin and was a Fox International Fellow and Max Kade Scholar at Yale University.

• International Finance
• Open Economy Macroeconomics
• Financial Market Development and Stability
• Development and Transition Economics
• Global Economic Governance
• East Asian Financial Markets