Matthias Bauer
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Office: +32 (0)2 289 1350 Mobile: +32 (0)499 053 105
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Areas of Expertise: European Union Eurozone Crisis EU Trade Agreements Digital Economy EU Single Market WTO and Globalisation Services
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 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...
ECIPE Occasional Papers
Boosting Efficiency and Quality in EU Public Services: The Need for a European Multi-Cloud-First Strategy
Unprecedented Opportunity for Public Service Modernisation EU governments have an unprecedented opportunity to unlock up to EUR 450 billion in annual fiscal savings by modernising public services through advanced multi-cloud solutions, cloud-based AI, and other deep tech innovations. As estimated in this study, this figure highlights the transformative impact of digitised government services – not only in improving service quality and operational efficiency but...
ECIPE Occasional Papers
Competitive Harmonisation: A Collaborative Framework for Intra-EU Reform and Competitiveness
Persistent legal fragmentation, compounded by the EU's 24 official languages, increases costs and legal uncertainty, deterring meaningful investments in innovation and preventing businesses from scaling across borders. Without bold, comprehensive legal reforms, Europe will fall further behind in global competition and major global technological developments. The EU’s incremental reform approach has failed to address the deep-rooted legal and institutional...
ECIPE Policy Briefs
Cybersecurity at Risk: How the EU’s Digital Markets Act Could Undermine Security across Mobile Operating Systems
The EU’s fight against cybersecurity threats risks being undermined by the over-enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Article 5(4) could force mobile operating system providers to allow unregulated external links, bypassing critical security controls and exposing millions of smartphone users to cyber threats. The DMA focuses on market structure, overlooking how differences in operating system design affect security vulnerabilities. A one-size-fits-all...
Media Mention
What’s in Europe’s Competitiveness Compass?
Matthias Bauer's blog "Brussels Can’t Save Europe’s Car Industry – But It Can Stop Making It Worse" is referenced in the weekly newsletter What's up EU.
Media Mention
Data Localization: India’s Tryst with Data Sovereignty
The study "The Costs of Data Localisation: Friendly Fire On Economic Recovery" by Matthias Bauer, Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Erik van der Marel and Bert Verschelde is referenced in an opinion of the TechPolicy.press.
Media Mention
Reducing Payment Fraud in the EU: Why the PSR Needs to Strike the Right Balance
The study "Shared Liability: The European Parliament's Misstep in Fighting Financial Fraud" by Matthias Bauer, Andrea Dugo and Dyuti Pandya is cited in a blog of the Disruptive Competition Project (DisCo).
Media Mention
How Europe Can Navigate the Regulatory Tightrope Trade-Offs and Risks in EU Digital Policy
Mathias Bauer, Fredrik Erixon and Dyuti Pandya's study, "‘The EU’s Trillion Dollar Gap in ICT and Cloud Computing Capacities: The Case for a New Approach to Cloud Policy." cited in Centre for European Policy Network Studies
Article
Brussels Blueprint, Turkish Overreach? The Risks of Copying the EU’s Digital Competition Law
Matthias Bauer and Dyuti Pandya writes about Turkey’s proposed digital competition rules mimicking the EU’s DMA, risking overregulation, stifled innovation, and deterred foreign investment via Turkish Law Blog.
Article
Borrowed Blueprints, Unintended Consequences: South Africa and the EU’s Digital Markets Act
Matthias Bauer and Dyuti Pandya write for African Antitrust & Competition Law on how South Africa's digital regulatory moves echo EU strategies but risk stifling innovation and investment.
Article
Wo Europa mehr wie China und die USA werden muss
Matthias Bauer op-ed for Franffurter Allgemeine on the need for a strong single market for the EU to become more like the US and China.
Article
Interview: ‘Political’ China EV tariffs will be hard to undo
Matthias Bauer is interviewed by Julia Kaiser of The Parliament about the EU tariffs imposed on Chinese EVs.
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.
Book or Paper
Digital Market Act: Competition, Private Property, Innovation and the Interests of the Users
In a joint study with the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Matthias Bauer analyses the consequences of the Digital Markets Act.
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.
Speech or Presentation
France and Germany in turmoil; how would that affect EU economy?
Matthias Bauer contributed on the show Counting the Cost of Al Jazeera English concerning the serious political and economic turmoil that France and Germany are facing, as well as about an struggling European economy which lags behind the US and China.
Speech or Presentation
EP167: Dropshipping under fire, Brazil’s X ban, and Chinese EV tariffs (w/ Matthias Bauer)
Matthias Bauer joins the ConsEUmer Podcast to talk about the latest news in the EU-China EV tariff saga.