Draft:Christian Kastrop

Christian Kastrop is a German economist. Since September 2023 he has served as Managing Partner of the Global Solutions Initiative in Berlin. He was State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection from 2020 to 2021.

Life and work
Kastrop studied economics and economic and social psychology at the University of Cologne from 1978 to 1984, later working there as a research assistant and lecturer in the Faculty of Political Science and the Finance Research Institute. In 1989, he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, where his main subjects were Philosophy of the Middle Ages and Financial Accounting. This was followed in 1991 by his doctorate at the University of Cologne, which focused on the rationality of economic theory dynamics.

From 1989 to 2014, Kastrop held a number of senior positions at the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), including head of the press unit and ministry spokesman, as well as head of the general council for financial policy and of the strategy and speeches unit. From 2002, he was sub-department head for fundamental issues of financial policy, from 2006 simultaneously sub-department head European Economic and Monetary Union, bilateral relations and EU enlargement, and from 2011 head of the sub-department International Fiscal Policy and Financial Institutions.

Kastrop was involved in the founding of Brussels think tank Bruegel as a project manager. From 2006 to 2010, he was first vice president and then president of the Economic Policy Committee (EPC), which prepares the ministerial meetings of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) and the Eurogroup.

Following his tenure at the BMF, Kastrop was Director of the Economic and Financial Policy Studies Department at the OECD in Paris from 2014 to 2017. In this role he initiated and led various research projects and developed policy recommendations in the areas of macroeconomics, sustainable and inclusive economics and finance, and the environmental and digital transformations. He is a co-founder of the OECD's Global Forum for Productivity and an active supporter of New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC).

From 2018 to 2020 he was director of the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Europe's Future program, where he oversaw the foundation's work on the European Single Market, European Economic and Monetary Union, and European Public Goods, as well as EU foreign and neighborhood policy. This period also saw the foundation's studies on the economic impact of Brexit, growth effects in the EU single market, and a European unemployment reinsurance scheme.

From May 2020, he was State Secretary for "Consumer Policy and Digital Society" in the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. He left office in December 2021 when the Scholz cabinet was formed.

He headed the Socio-Economic Transformation program at The New Institute in Hamburg from October 2022 until August 2023. He has served as Managing Partner of the Global Solutions Initiative since September 2023.

Kastrop has also taught as an honorary professor in the Department of Economics at Freie Universität Berlin[1] since 2018, focusing on public finance, fiscal rules, and international institutions. He is a Senior Fellow at the Hertie School and a Policy Fellow at the Cologne Institute for Financial Research.

Main focus
Kastrop has worked on the conception of national, European and international economic and fiscal policy since 1989. He is considered an expert on public finance, institutional design, public goods, and the (digital) single market in Europe. His work deals with a sovereign Europe and the necessary analysis of European added value in various policy fields. Kastrop is considered a co-developer of the German debt brake. At the BMJV, Kastrop focused on issues relating to national and European consumer policy, especially digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and hate speech on the internet.

Private life
Kastrop has been active and volunteered in the Catholic Student Youth (KSJ) in various capacities for many years. He lives near Potsdam. Kastrop is a member of the SPD.

Publications

 * with Eckhard Bergmann, Wilfried Steinheuer (eds.): Public Budgets and Risk. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1990, ISBN 978-3-531-03243-6.
 * The Concession Charges of Municipalities as a Steering and Financing Instrument. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3-17-011820-1.
 * Rationale Ökonomik - Überlegungen zu den Kriterien der ökonomischen Theoriendynamik. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1993, ISBN 978-3-428-07506-5 (doctoral dissertation).
 * with S. Deroose (ed.): The Quality of Public Finances. Findings of the EPC-Working Group: First Period 2004-2007. European Commission, 2008.
 * with Werner Ebert: Governing the Euro Area in the Next Decade. Assessment and Challenges Ahead. In: Rolf Caesar et al. (eds.): Governing the Eurozone. Stuttgart 2009, pp. 51-61.
 * with Gisela Meister-Scheufelen, Margaretha Sudhof (eds.): Die neuen Schuldenregeln im Grundgesetz. Zur Fortentwicklung der bundesstaatlichen Finanzbeziehungen. BWV Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8305-1780-1.
 * with A. de La Fuente, M. Thöne: Regional Financing in Germany and Spain. Comparative Reform Perspectives. Graduate School of Economics (GSE), 2016.
 * with D. Ponattu: European Public Goods and Fiscal Rules 4.0 - Market Discipline and Solidarity as Guiding Principles for the Eurozone. In: ifo Schnelldienst. Vol. 72, 2019, pp. 16-19 (ifo.de [PDF; accessed December 14, 2020]).
 * with Thomas Wieser: Corona crisis: an act of economic reason. In: Zeit Online. 13 April 2020, accessed 14 December 2020.
 * Consumer Policy After COVID-19 - Fostering Social Cohesion. In: Social Europe. October 22, 2020, accessed December 14, 2020.
 * with McArthur, John; Treyer, Sébastian; Issue Paper: Ramping up Investments in a Better Future: The Need for a Refreshed G7 Approach to Realize the Opportunity of Global Sustainable Development. G20-insights, 5 April, 2023
 * with Engels, Markus: Toward a New Age of Multilateralism. G20-insights, 5 June, 2023