Professor Christian Hagist received an Economics scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and studied at the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) from 1998 to 2003. After receiving a degree as Diplom Economist, he worked as a researcher at the research institute "Generationenverträge“ at the University of Freiburg and was a visiting scholar under Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff at Boston University (USA). In 2007, he successfully completed his dissertation (Dr. rer. pol.) with the topic "Demography and Social Health Insurance“, which was supervised by Professor Bernd Raffelhüschen. For his dissertation, he received the Friedrich-August-von-Hayek award from the University of Freiburg.
From 2007 to 2014, Christian Hagist worked as assistant professor (Akademischer Rat) at the University of Freiburg. In 2012 he received the venia legendi for the field of economics with his habilitation thesis "Studien zur Finanzwissenschaft des demografischen Wandels, der Finanzierung öffentlicher Güter und der Gesundheitsökonomik“. During that time, Professor Hagist researched and lectured abroad at the University of Bergen in Norway and the University of Paris XII in France. In 2011 he received the renowned Walkter-Eucken award from the University of Jena.