Educational Program on the Sustainable Trade Index 2025
The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC-USA), in partnership with the Hinrich Foundation, will host an educational program on the Sustainable Trade Index 2025 on Monday, November 24, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. (EST). The program will feature Dr. Christos Cabolis, Chief Economist at the IMD World Competitiveness Center, who will present the key findings of the latest Sustainable Trade Index and discuss its implications for global trade and journalism.
The Sustainable Trade Index (STI), developed by the Hinrich Foundation and the IMD World Competitiveness Center, measures the capacity of 30 major global economies to trade sustainably — balancing economic growth, social development, and environmental protection. The 2025 edition examines how countries perform across three main pillars:
Economic pillar – assessing innovation, trade infrastructure, and competitiveness;
Societal pillar – evaluating human capital, labor standards, and political stability;
Environmental pillar – measuring carbon intensity, pollution, and responsible resource use.
Through this educational program, international correspondents and journalists will gain a deeper understanding of how the Sustainable Trade Index can serve as a valuable tool for analyzing global trade dynamics. Participants will learn how to interpret the data behind the index, identify key trends shaping sustainable trade policy, and translate these insights into informed reporting on international economic and environmental developments.
The session will provide a unique opportunity for members of the foreign press to explore how trade sustainability affects economic resilience, geopolitical relations, and the future of global commerce.
Date: Monday, November 24, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Format: Online
Speaker: Dr. Christos Cabolis, Chief Economist, IMD World Competitiveness Center
Presented by: The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA (AFPC-USA) in partnership with the Hinrich Foundation
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Christos Cabolis
Christos Cabolis is the Chief Economist at the IMD World Competitiveness Center. He is also the Head of Operations at IMD, and an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Competitiveness.
Cabolis joined IMD from ALBA Graduate Business School at The American College of Greece where he was an Associate Professor of Economics and Finance. Prior to ALBA, he was the Executive Director of the International Center for Finance at Yale School of Management. From 1997-2002 he was a lecturer of economics at Yale University, where he also served as Dean of Jonathan Edwards College. He has also taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara and at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School where he was Visiting Associate Professor of Finance in 2010-11.
Cabolis’ teaching focuses on courses related to business economics, macroeconomics, corporate finance, financial management, and industrial organization.
A Research Fellow at the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management, his research focuses on issues related to mergers, the valuation of changes in corporate governance, and measuring market power. Currently, he works in topics related to the effects of rating agencies’ valuations, the interplay between competition and specialization in venture capital firms, and the optimum size of banks.
He has been published in The Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Journal of Banking and Finance, among others. Cabolis has been awarded grants by the BSI Gamma Foundation and the Sloan Foundation for his research. He was also the recipient of the Inaugural Jaime Fernández de Araoz Award in Corporate Finance.
Cabolis holds a BA from the University of Athens, an MA from California State University, Long Beach, and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.