
Niclas Poitiers
Niclas Poitiers, a German citizen, joined Bruegel as a research fellow in September 2019.
Niclas' research interests include international trade, international macroeconomics and the digital economy. He is working on topics on e-commerce in trade as well as European trade policy in global trade wars. Furthermore he is interested in topics on income inequality and welfare state policies.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Universitat de Barcelona, a M.Sc. in economics from the Universität Bonn, and a B.Sc. from Universität Mannheim. During his Ph.D. he was a visiting scholar at Northwestern University.
Niclas is fluent in English, Spanish, and German.
Disclosure of interests
Featured work

Talks@Bruegel : Unfinished business: Trade barriers within the EU with Lorenzo Rotunno
What’s holding back productivity and market integration in Europe – and how can removing intra-EU barriers unlock growth?

The economic impact of Trump’s tariffs on Europe: an initial assessment
It is likely that Trump’s tariffs will be a limited hit to Europe, though some regions and industries could suffer and may need protective measures

Five reasons why Europe must retaliate against Trump’s tariffs
Europe did not choose and has no interest in this trade war but cannot tolerate tariffs with no response

Sound of Economics Live: Trump’s tariffs and the EU
A special live episode of The Sound of Economics podcast on tariffs

Trump’s tariffs and the EU
How should the EU respond to the US tariffs?

How to fix a staggering Germany
Federal elections expose Germany’s economic struggle

What Europe can expect of Trump: a timeline
A handy guide to the main decisions and milestones of the second Trump administration.

Getting to the crux of financing infrastructure in Africa
Bruegel, CGD, and JICA gathered experts to tackle obstacles to financing Africa's infrastructure, aiming to close a USD15 trillion gap by 2040

Memo to the commissioner responsible for the internal market

Roundtable on the EU's countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicle imports
This closed-door event discussed the EU's countervailing duties on Chinese clean-tech products and their impact on EU-China trade

Tariffs are not the cure to world trade problems
How do Brussels, Beijing and Washington navigate global trade-offs?

The EU cannot drag its feet on Chinese subsidies any longer
The European Union should apply countervailing subsidies on government-supported imports from China

Instruments of economic security
The challenge of improving European economic security has grown in importance, with various relevant policy measures introduced at EU level

Ways to revive global growth
What are the prospects for medium-term global growth, and what role can productivity reforms play in reversing the slowdown?

Should Europe put extra tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles?

European Economic Security: Current practices and further development

Global supply chains: lessons from a decade of disruption
This paper revisits the effects of three shocks on the functioning of global supply chains.

Knowledge spillovers and geopolitical challenges in global supply chains
Our main message is that policies restricting knowledge flows should be limited to narrowly defined areas of strategic importance.

Making industrial policy work: a case study on the European Battery Alliance Academy
Efforts to address skilled-labour shortages in the battery sector can provide lessons to other areas of EU industrial policy.

Taking stock of EU economic security
When we discuss economic security, what are we actually talking about?

The manufacturing jobs boom that isn’t
The US Inflation Reduction Act shows that massive subsidies are not leading to massive manufacturing job creation.

Green tech race? The US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Net Zero Industry Act in The World Economy

EU trade and investment following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine

Why is the G7 expected to issue a joint statement condemning 'economic coercion'?

Why Europe’s critical raw materials strategy has to be international
In ensuring supplies of critical raw materials, the European Union cannot rely on domestic measures alone.

Assessing Europe’s strategy on critical raw materials
What role do critical raw materials play in the EU’s industrial policy?

The EU Net Zero Industry Act and the risk of reviving past failures
How the EU might respond to clean tech subsidies, in the form of a leaked draft law entitled the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), is deeply worrisome.

How Europe should answer the US Inflation Reduction Act
This policy brief explains what is in the IRA, the impact on the EU and other economies, and how the EU should react.

Strengthening the security of supply of products containing Critical Raw Materials

Europe’s promised semiconductor subsidies need to be better targeted
The proposed European Chips Act over-emphasises semiconductor production subsidies, focusing too little on increasing value-added in research.

Securing the supply of semiconductors to Europe
An assessment of the EU Chips Act.

Fishing for Chips: Assessing the EU Chips Act
The EU Chips Act, announced in February 2022, represents a real break in Europe's industrial policy.

Shifting taxes in order to achieve green goals
How could shifting the tax burden from labour to pollution and resources help the EU reach its climate goals?

Is the EU Chips Act the right approach?
Measures to safeguard semiconductor supplies proposed in the Chips Act could prove to be wrongly focused, could tip over into harmful protectionism.

Three data realms: Managing the divergence between the EU, the US and China in the digital sphere
How do major economies differ in their regulation of digital trade, and how can we best deal with the risks posed by diverging regulatory regimes?

Knowledge flows and global value chains
We explore the implications of a range of novel approaches to GVCs for our understanding of how they affect knowledge flow and innovation.

The decoupling of Russia: European vulnerabilities in the high-tech sector
The EU will face challenges in sectors where it relies on Russian and Ukrainian commodities and technologies.

The decoupling of Russia: high-tech goods and components
Sanctions on high-tech goods supplies, combined with financial sanctions and other restrictions, will deprive Russia of a future as a modern economy.

The decoupling of Russia: software, media and online services
Restrictions so far on software, media and online services in Russia have been imposed either voluntarily by firms, or else by Russia itself in order

The Kremlin’s gas wars
How Europe can protect itself from Russian blackmail.

Productivity in transformative times
This Microprod policy conference discussed how productivity is affected by globalisation and digitisation.

The risks for Russia and Europe: how new sanctions could hit economic ties
To play a deterrent role against Russian military action, sanctions would have to be very broad, have a rapid effect and be as coordinated as possible

Opaque and ill-defined: the problems with Europe’s IPCEI subsidy framework
Lack of strict governance and transparency creates serious risk that fair competition within the single market will be undermined.

Instruments of a strategic foreign economic policy
Study for the German Federal Foreign Office produced by Bruegel, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and DIW Berlin.

Microchips and Europe's strategic autonomy
Per microchips ad strategic autonomy.

Europe doesn’t need a ‘Mega-Fab’
Europe should defend its existing dominance in equipment manufacturing for semiconductors and invest in chip design instead of luring high-end fabrica

EU-India trade relations: assessment and perspectives
In-depth analysis prepared for the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA).

Conference on the Future of Europe: envisioning EU citizens engagement
Bruegel Annual Meetings, Day 3 - Panellists will discuss different options and what they may entail while revisiting the debates on the future of Euro

Bruegel Annual Meetings, 1-3 September 2021
The 2021 Annual Meetings gathered high-level speakers and participants to discuss how to recover from the crises brought on by the Covid pandemic

A world divided: global vaccine trade and production
COVID-19 has reinforced traditional vaccine production patterns, but the global vaccine trade has changed considerably.

A new direction for the European Union’s half-hearted semiconductor strategy
The EU needs a more targeted strategy to increase its presence in this strategic and thriving sector, building on its existing strengths, while accomm

Building the Road to Greener Pastures
How the G20 can support the recovery with sustainable local infrastructure investment.

Avoiding a requiem for the WTO
The WTO has been 'missing in action': how can we restore the organisation's role as a global forum for cooperation on trade?

Digital European Economic Sovereignty? The Case of Semiconductors
Study prepared for the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET).
Towards a global corporate tax?
How will a global corporate tax affect the modern economy?

Global value chain reshuffling: From tight coupling to loose coupling?
As the focus shifts from efficiency to resilience in global supply chains, what does this mean for China?

An update: Vaccination in the EU
Progress has been made, but more progress is needed.

Think green act local: the role of the G20 in sustainable infrastructure
In this workshop, invited guests will discuss priorities and proposals for the Italian G20 Presidency for a green local infrastructure agenda.

The impact of COVID-19 on the Internal Market
Study assessing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the European Union's Internal Market and consumer protection prepared for the European Parliament

Data flows, artificial intelligence and international trade: impacts and prospects for the value chains of the future
In-depth briefing and analysis on the issues of digital trade and the geopolitics of trade provided to the European Parliament.

Political assessment of possible future positive (cooperation) or negative (restrictive) attitudes of main trade partners of the EU
Testimony to the European Parliament on the geopolitical aspects of trade.

Disrupted medical supply chains: symptoms, side-effects, and treatment?
How can the EU increase the resilience of value chains in the health industry?

Diversification and the world trading system
Diversification is important because it is associated with economic growth and reduced volatility.
The benefits of the single market - the case of last enlargement
Apps without borders? How COVID-19 apps show the limits of the EU digital single market
In their toolkit against a pandemic that knows no borders, several EU countries have bet on new technology from our era of globalisation: digital cont

Europe’s China problem: investment screening and state aid
China’s state capitalist economy poses a challenge to EU openness to foreign investment. In response, the European Commission 17 June published a Whit
Reopening: Europe
This episode provides a background overview of the impact of the reopening of borders on European value chains, future of work, and innovation.

EU-China trade and investment relations in challenging times
In this report, we have focused on trade and investment relations and have not attempted to define the many other policy instruments that the EU can a

EU trade in medical goods: why self-sufficiency is the wrong approach
As countries are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages in medical equipment led to EU export controls and war-time like procurement of resp
Mythbusters: debunking economic myths
Economics seems to be full of myths that are hard to debunk. Will robots take our jobs? Are trade deficits bad? Is China such a big economy simply bec

COVID-19 and broken Collusion: the oil price collapse is one more warning for Russia
In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, the sharp collapse in the oil price has received little attention. Brent fell by 30% on 9 March, the largest fa
Where are the women in economics?
The field of economics, like many others, seems to be biased towards men. How are women disadvantaged? Makfire Alija and Katja Knezevic join Nicholas
Will globalisation survive the Coronavirus?
From Brussels with love? Russia's economic dependence on the EU
Despite the political antagonism, the EU and Russia are not only geographically, but also economically, reliant on each other: European houses are hea

FDI another day: Russian reliance on European investment
Most foreign direct investment into Russia originates in the European Union: European investors own between 55 percent and 75 percent of Russian FDI s
Will Iran disrupt the global economy?
Last Friday, Qassem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ QUDS force, was killed by an American airstrike outside Baghdad airport. The
A decade to remember (or possibly to forget) for economists
2019 is coming to an end and so is the decade. How did economics change the world over the last ten years? And did the world change economics? Which e
Getting post-Brexit trade deals done
The UK goes to the polls on Thursday to decide who (and if) they want to "get Brexit done". But, as soon as Britain leaves, it will have 11 months to

High noon at the Appellate Body
This blog post explains the working method of the dispute settlement body, and then discusses the objections the US has raised against the Appellate B
Russian economy at the crossroads: how to boost long-term growth?
Russia’s convergence to advanced economy income levels has stalled. Long-term growth prospects are still obstructed by sluggish productivity growth, l