Matthias Thiemann Is 2025 Scholar in Residence

Matthias Thiemann, professor for European public policy at Sciences Po in Paris, will be joining the MPIfG between April and June as this year’s Scholar in Residence. During his stay in Cologne, Thiemann will offer a three-part public lecture series, “Financial Stability, Shadow Banking, and the Conditions of Monetary Modernity: A Struggle in Three Acts.” His lectures will focus on the origins of shadow banking in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s and the struggle to integrate financial stability into monetary policy at the US Federal Reserve after 2008. They will be held at the MPIfG on April 29, May 6, and May 13.

Thiemann is a sociologist working at the intersection with political economy. After completing his PhD at Columbia University in 2012, he was a postdoc at the ESSEC Business School in Paris and went on to become an assistant professor at Goethe University Frankfurt. Since 2017, he has been professor for European public policy at Sciences Po, Paris. The two main focuses of his research are attempts by financial regulators in Europe and the US to control risk-taking among actors in the financial industry, on the one hand, and regulatory changes in the US and Europe after the 2008/09 global financial crisis, on the other. He is particularly interested in why some policy concepts that became popular after the financial crisis were translated into laws, regulations, or policies, while others were not adopted by policymakers, regardless of relevance or popularity.

Each year, the MPIfG invites a leading scholar in the political, economic, or social sciences to spend time at the Institute as its Scholar in Residence. During their stay, the Scholar in Residence pursues a research project thematically relevant to the main research interests at the MPIfG and is actively involved in its academic life, including by offering a lecture series on a topic of their choice.