Philippe’s opening keynote for the Spinoza Foundation was described as a ‘magnificent tour de force’ by Martin Wolf.
Philippe Legrain is a critically acclaimed political economist with policy experience and a track record of political and economic insight. He specializes in global and European political economy issues, including macro, geopolitics, trade and immigration.
With the world in turmoil now that Trump is demolishing the old economic, financial and geopolitical order, Philippe’s main focus is thinking about what comes next, and how best to navigate this new era of exceptional uncertainty. This new essay for his Substack gives a flavour of his latest thinking (March 2025).
A senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, he is the founder of Open Political Economy Network (OPEN), an international think-tank on openness issues, and a columnist for Foreign Policy and Project Syndicate and other international media outlets. He also consults for a wide range of prestigious international clients.
Philippe was among the first to diagnose the financial panic that almost destroyed the euro, which led to his engagement as European Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s independent economic adviser and head of the team providing the president with strategic policy advice from 2011 to 2014.
Previously, his insight into the anti-globalization movement led to his appointment as special adviser to World Trade Organization Director-General Mike Moore.
He has also consulted for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the Swedish government’s Globalization Council, UNDP and the Asian Development Bank. Philippe began his career in finance, and then became the trade and economics correspondent for The Economist.
He holds a BSc in Economics and an MSc in Politics of the World Economy, both from the London School of Economics.
Philippe is the author of five critically acclaimed books: Open World: The Truth about Globalization (2002),
Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them (2007), Aftershock: Reshaping the World Economy After the Crisis (2010): European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right (2014): Them & Us, How Immigrants and Locals can Thrive Together (2020) which won the Diversity, Inclusion & Equality Award at the Business Book Awards 2021.
