Matthias Bauer
Email: matthias.bauer@ecipe.org
Mobile: +32 (0)499 053 105
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Matthias Bauer is a German economist and Director at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). He works on EU and global trade policy with a focus on digital and technology policymaking.
Matthias Bauer is the author of several studies, economic impact assessments and policy briefs in the fields of international trade, digital markets, the regulation of data, innovation, and intellectual property rights. He is regularly consulted by private and public sector organisations on a broad range of policy issues ranging from impact analysis to strategic advice.
Bauer grew up in Eastern Germany. He is an alumni of the US international visitor leadership program (IVLP). He studied business administration at the University of Hull, UK, and economics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. He received his Ph.D. degree after joining the Bundesbank graduate programme on the “Foundations of Global Financial Markets and Financial Stability”.
Before joining ECIPE, Matthias Bauer was the Coordinator of International Political Economy at the international cooperation division of Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Berlin. He previously held positions at DekaBank, UBS, Mercedes-Benz China, and worked as a start-up and business development consultant. Matthias is a member of Tutwa Europe’s economic policy expert network. He is also the co-founder of the German-based Institute for Digital Education (IfODiB).
ECIPE Occasional Papers
100 Leaders in Europe’s Economies: Benchmarking Investment, Innovation and Impact in Europe
Europe’s competitiveness is built on openness, interdependence, and global embeddedness. Its prosperity depends not on how many firms it “owns”, but on how many choose Europe as a place to invest, innovate, and employ. Both European- and non-European-headquartered multinationals generate vast value added, capital investment, and technological spillovers within Europe – forming the backbone of its industrial renewal, productivity growth, and innovation...
ECIPE Occasional Papers
What About Us? Consumer Response to the Digital Markets Act
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) was introduced as a landmark piece of EU legislation to change how consumers interact or engage with large online platforms. By restraining the power of the so-called gatekeepers, Brussels aimed to promote greater competition, improve privacy protections and make digital services more affordable. Two years into its application, however, the reality on the ground in EU, especially for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) Member States...
ECIPE Occasional Papers
Breaking Barriers to Cloud Customer Choice: Unlocking Europe’s AI and Innovation Leadership
Cloud computing underpins digital transformation and is essential for unlocking the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and scalable digital services. Yet Europe continues to lag behind global peers in both cloud and AI adoption. This underperformance is not merely technological; it is structural and it is costly. Without rapid progress, the EU risks missing out on over EUR 1.2 trillion in GDP gains across the private sector by around 2030. In...
ECIPE Policy Briefs
EU Export of Regulatory Overreach: The Case of the Digital Markets Act (DMA)
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) exemplifies the "Brussels Effect," extending the EU’s regulatory influence beyond its borders and shaping global digital competition policies. While intended to curb the market power of large technology platforms and promote fair competition, its broad, rigid, and pre-emptive approach risks stifling technological development, deterring investment, and creating legal uncertainty, particularly in emerging markets still building...
Media Mention
Top Three Priorities in 2026 for Europe’s Digital Competitiveness
The paper "The Economic Impacts of the Proposed EUCS Exclusionary Requirements: Estimates for EU Member States" by Matthias Bauer and Philipp Lamprecht is referenced in a Cisco blog.
Media Mention
Defending American Tech in Global Markets
ECIPE studies, "EU Export of Regulatory Overreach: The Case of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and "The Economic Losses from Ending the WTO Moratorium on Electronic Transmissions" are referenced in the ITIF Policy Brief.
Media Mention
Who killed Europe’s single market dream?
Matthias Bauer comments for an FT Briefing on the Single Market.
Media Mention
Europe in the Age of AI: How Technology Leadership Can Boost Competitiveness and Security
The studies "Breaking Barriers, Boosting Growth: Unlocking the Power of Digital Technology for Europe’s Competitiveness" by Oscar Guinea, Vanika Sharma, Erik van der Marel, and Oscar du Roy, "The Future of European Digital Competitiveness" by Oscar Guinea and Vanika Sharma, and "Boosting Efficiency and Quality in EU Public Services: The Need for a European Multi-Cloud-First Strategy" by Matthias Bauer, Andrea Dugo, Dyuti Pandya, Vanika Sharma, and Elena Sisto are referenced in a paper published by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Article
Why Brussels Should Be Applying to Switzerland Instead
Matthias Bauer writes for Schweizer Monat that democracies are subtly undermined by the unchecked growth of rules and agencies, except in Switzerland, where government remains accountable to its citizens rather than the reverse.
Article
Why Cutting Bureaucracy Is a Near-Impossible Mission in a Representative Democracy
Matthias Bauer writes an op-ed for the Brussels Report on how efforts to cut European bureaucracy fail because entrenched industries and professions profit from regulatory complexity.
Article
Niemiecki ekonomista: Przez wiele lat żyliśmy ponad stan
Matthias Bauer discusses Germany's economic stagnation, investment gaps, regulatory challenges, and calls for greater European integration and harmonisation to boost competitiveness and address key issues in an interview with DW.
Article
Digital sovereignty starts with cloud customer choice
Matthias Bauer writes for Encompass on how Europe must prioritise real cloud customer choice, balancing regulation, competition, and open standards to unlock digital innovation, flexibility, and economic growth across the EU.
Book or Paper
The IP Compass: A Strategic Guide for EU Policymakers Navigating Innovation and Global Competition
Case study by Matthias Bauer and Dyuti Pandya for the International Property Rights Index 2025 commissioned by the Property Rights Alliance.
Book or Paper
Scaling Investment and Innovation: A passporting framework for EU telecommunication
Matthias Bauer and Dyuti Pandya write about how CoO passporting boosts EU telecoms, reducing fragmentation, enhancing investment and competitiveness for the report "Why Europe needs a true Digital Single Market" commissioned by Vodafone.
Book or Paper
New Regulations in Europe’s Digital Economy: Design, Structure, Trade and Economic Effects
ECIPE report on EU digital regulations published by the Confederations of Swedish Enterprise
Book or Paper
Measuring the Impacts of the European Union’s Approach to Open Strategic Autonomy
Report for ECIPE prepared by Frontier Economics on the short and long term macro-economic impacts of new EU policies and regulations that change the conditions for cross-border economic exchangewith the EU.
Speech or Presentation
Lines on a Map Are Now Lines of Power and Contestation | Budapest Global Dialogue 2025
Matthias Bauer joins a high-level panel exploring how resurging borders reshape globalisation by the Observer Research Foundation, with a focus on EU digital sovereignty and economic fragmentation.
Speech or Presentation
Europas Traum von der digitalen Souveränität
Matthias Bauer talks about Europe’s reliance on American IT providers posing geopolitical risks via Deutschlandfunk.
Speech or Presentation
Is it possible to repair the growing EU-U.S. transatlantic rift?
Matthias Bauer talks with CGTN on how the EU faces defence challenges, US tensions, and strategic autonomy questions.
Speech or Presentation
Europa will seine Autos retten – Vollgas oder Geisterfahrt?
Matthias Bauer commenting on PunktEU on the future of Europe's car manufacturing industry.