Ivo Maes
Ivo Maes is a Non-resident Fellow at Bruegel. He specialises in European monetary integration and the history of central banking.
He covers the history and development of European economic and monetary union, the euro and the international monetary system. He has also published extensively on the life and intellectual works of Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin.
He speaks English, Dutch, German, Italian and French.
He is a Professor at ICHEC Brussels Management School. He was formerly a professor and Robert Triffin Chair at the Université catholique de Louvain. Previously, he worked as Visiting Professor at Duke University, Université de Paris-Sorbonne and Università Roma Tre. He retired as a Senior Advisor at the Economics and Research Department of the National Bank of Belgium in 2021. From May 2015 to June 2018, he was President of the Council of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. In 2003, he was a member of the Committee for Institutional Reform of the West African Monetary Union. He holds a PhD in Economics from KU Leuven.
Disclosure of interests
Featured work
Ragnar Nurkse and the Making of the Bretton Woods Paradigm
An intellectual biography and analysis of how a little-known Estonian economist developed the authoritative account of the Bretton Woods paradigm
The Werner Report, the Delors Report and the Birth of Euro
Alexandre Lamfalussy and the origins of instability in capitalist economies
Robert Triffin’s analysis of the role of sterling in the international monetary system
Robert Triffin’s analysis of the role of sterling in the international monetary system
The European Parliament, Economic and Monetary Union, and the Maastricht Treaty
A tale of two treatises: the Werner and Delors Reports and the birth of the euro
Focusing on the Werner and Delors Reports, this essay aims to capture key ideas and debates, giving a chronological overview of the EMU process
All work
Book
18 May 2026
Ragnar Nurkse and the Making of the Bretton Woods Paradigm
An intellectual biography and analysis of how a little-known Estonian economist developed the authoritative account of the Bretton Woods paradigm
External publication
01 December 2025
External publication
18 June 2025
External publication
09 June 2025
External publication
09 June 2025
External publication
28 April 2025
Essay
14 February 2024
A tale of two treatises: the Werner and Delors Reports and the birth of the euro
Focusing on the Werner and Delors Reports, this essay aims to capture key ideas and debates, giving a chronological overview of the EMU process