Expert Categories: Author
Benjamin Hilgenstock
Benjamin Hilgenstock is a Senior Economist at the Kyiv School of Economics’ think tank, KSE Institute, focusing on international sanctions on Russia, in particular in the areas of energy, trade, finance, and export controls. Benjamin is also an Associate Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and a member of the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions. He has written extensively on the topic of sanctions, including enforcement challenges of the G7 oil price cap regime as well as Russia’s continued access to Western technology.
Previously, Benjamin worked for the Institute of International Finance in Washington, DC (2018-2022) on the macroeconomic analysis of emerging markets, specifically those in Central and Eastern Europe and including Russia and Ukraine. Benjamin also spent several years with the International Monetary Fund’s (2016-2018) research department working on the publication of the World Economic Outlook.
He holds a Master of Arts in political science, macroeconomics, and German constitutional law from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz (2008) and studied abroad at American University in Washington, DC and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
(Last updated March 2024)
Daniel Spiro
Daniel Spiro is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Uppsala University. His research mainly focuses on energy, conflict and climate policy.
(Last updated March 2026)
Inese Stars
Inese Stars has studied social sciences and obtained her PhD in pedagogy at the University of Latvia. Her research interests are related to social determinants of health, health literacy, and qualitative research methods in health research. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Rīga Stradiņš University.
Inese Gobiņa
Inese Gobiņa (PhD, Associate Professor) has a public health and epidemiology background. Her research interests lie in health determinants and health-related outcomes at a population level.
Anatoly Kharitonchik
Anatoly Kharitonchik is a Research Associate at the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC). Before joining BEROC in 2022, Anatoly worked at the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus and at the Eurasian Development Bank, where he was involved in macroeconomic analysis, forecasting, modeling, and policy decision support.
Anatoly Kharitonchik obtained his Ph.D. in banking and finance (2022) from the Belarusian State Economic University. His research interests are within macroeconomics and monetary policy.
(Last updated February 2024)
Janis Berzins
Jānis Bērziņš is an Associate Professor at the BI Norwegian Business School. He holds a PhD in Finance from Indiana University. Jānis’ main research interests are in the field of corporate governance, corporate finance and asset management. He has published in journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Finance and Journal of Corporate Finance.
Zane Varpina
Zane Varpina is Faculty Advisor at Bachelor and Executive MBA programmes and teaches the Research Methods course to both our Master and Bachelor programme students, as well as Market Research in Bachelor programme.
Zane is Associate Professor at SSE Riga as of 2020 and was Assistant Professor since 2013. Zane has broad researcher experience in the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS).
(Last updated June 2023)
Kata Fredheim
Kata Fredheim is Executive Vice President of Partnership and Strategy, Associate Professor in Economics and Business at SSE Riga and Research Fellow at BICEPS.
As a social anthropologist, Kata’s research focuses on migration, internationalization, and higher education. Her most recent work is on Ukraine. She directs courses in Economic Anthropology, Market Research, and Global Challenges, and serving as the director of the Women in Leadership executive course.
(Last updated June 2023)
Giulian Etingin-Frati
Giulian is a pre-doctoral research fellow at the University of Zurich. He previously studied political economy and worked in international trade consulting.
Giulian’s primary research interests are in trade, development economics, and institutional quality.
(Last updated May 2024)
Zachary Vlessing
Zachary is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, studying Finance at The Wharton School and International Environmental Policy in the College. He is interested in Sustainable Development and Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance, and he has contributed to several research projects in this field.
Zachary is a Millenium Fellow, a fellowship from the United Nations given to university students promoting the Sustainable Development Goals, and a Wharton Research Scholar. After graduation, he will be working at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the Climate & Sustainability practice.
(Last updated March 2023)