Nicolas Lippolis

Nicolas is a final-year DPhil candidate in Politics at DPIR and Wolfson College. In addition, he is a researcher at the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Department of Economics; a fellow at the Oxford Martin Programme on African Governance; and the co-convenor of the Oxford University China-Africa Network. He has also been a visiting researcher at the Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po Paris.

Prior to the DPhil, Nicolas was based at the Blavatnik School of Government, where he was part of the project on “Rethinking African Paths to Industrial Development”, which aimed to reshape the policy agenda on industrialization. Nicolas holds an MSc in Economics for Development and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, both from Oxford University. He has consulted for the World Bank and previously worked in macroeconomic research on emerging markets at Goldman Sachs in London.

Nicolas has provided written commentary on economic and development policy for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Oxford Analytica, Our World in Data, and the Elcano Royal Institute, among others. Interviews, quotes and references to Nicolas’ work have appeared in the South China Morning Post, Folha de São Paulo, Agence Ecofin, Expansão (Luanda), Afrimag, Chine Magazine, Europe.Table, and China.Table.

Research

Nicolas’ research interests are in international political economy, focusing on how changes to the global economy influence development strategies in the Global South. His work combines quantitative analysis with qualitative interview techniques to understand the drivers of economic decision-making. His thesis seeks to explain the emergence of developmentalist projects in Africa during the commodity boom period through case studies of industrial policy in Angola and Ethiopia.

His other current research examines how Africa’s international financial insertion is being affected by high levels of indebtedness, China’s rise, and the growing importance of ‘green’ financing modalities. Ongoing projects investigate:

• How African governments navigate the geopolitics of global debt governance.

• The growing links between Africa and offshore financial centres in Asia.

• China's role as a provider of climate finance.

Besides Angola and Ethiopia, Nicolas has also conducted fieldwork in Kenya and China, and retains an interest in the politics and economics of Brazil, his home-country, as well as the rest of Latin America.

Teaching

At Oxford, Nicolas has taught the following modules to undergraduate students:

• Comparative Political Economy (tutorials)

• Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa (lectures and classes)

During his stay in Paris, he also taught the following classes:

• Thinking IR Globally - Sciences Po Paris, Menton Campus

• État, développement et illégalités en Afrique - University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Master Coopération Internationale Afrique Moyen-Orient (CIAMO)