School of Social and Political Science

Background

Qualifications

• M.A. (Cantab.)
• MSc (Edinburgh)
• MSc by Research (Edinburgh)
• PhD (Edinburgh)

Recent Posts

Iain completed his first degree in 1985 in History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before beginning an investment banking career in London and Hong Kong, specialising in emerging bond markets. He came to Edinburgh in 2001 to complete a part-time MSc in International and European Politics, before completing a PhD in 2003-07. His PhD examines the links between the financialization of government bond markets and emerging market government policy autonomy, focusing on case studies Brazil, Lebanon and Turkey. He has also worked with Donald Mackenzie on the sociology of financial markets.

Research Interests

Iain’s research interests include issues surrounding financial globalization, especially financialization and varieties of financial capitalism, focusing on the implications for both developed and developing countries. He convenes in International Political Economy Research Group and is a member of the International Relations Research Group. He is currently part of an ERC-funded research project with Donald Mackenzie on Evaluation Practices in Financial Markets, focusing on Government Bond Markets.

Selected Publications

The SNP's Currency Proposals, 2022. Centre on Constitutional Change Blog. Available at https://www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/snps-cu….

Twenty-First Century Central Banking and an Independent Scotland's Currency Choice. Centre on Constitutional Change Report. Available at https://centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/….

'Taking Europe Seriously: European Financialization and US Monetary Power', 2020 (with Helen Thompson) Review of International Political Economy.

'Why Hasn't High Frequency Trading Swept the Board? Shares, Sovereign Bonds and the Politics of Market Structure', 2020 (with Donald MacKenzie, Charlotte Rommerskirchen and Arjen Van der Heide) Review of International Political Economy

'The Impact of Treasury Yields on US Presidential Approval, 1960-2010', 2019 (with Ailsa Henderson and Charlotte Rommerskirchen) New Political Economy.

'Financial Structure and the Development of Domestic Bond Markets in Emerging Economies', 2018 (with Lena Rethel) Business and Politics.

Chains of Finance: How Investment Management is Shaped Oxford University Press, 2017 (with Diane-Laure Arjailes, Philip Grant, Donald MacKenzie and Ekaterina Svetlova).

'What is Patient Capital and Where Does It Exist?' in Socio Economic Review, 2017 (co-authored with Richard Deeg). 

'Atlas Constrained: The US External Balance Sheet and US Monetary Power' in Review of International Political Economy 2016 (co-authored with Sylvia Maxfield).

'EU Ring-Fencing and the Defense of Too Big to Fail Banks'  West European Politics 2016 (co-authored with Huw Macartney).

'The Lemon-Squeezing Problem: Analytical and Computational Limitations in Collaterized Debt Obligation Evaluation' Competition & Change 2014 (co-authored with Donald MacKenzie).

'Banks and the False Dichotomy in the Comparative Political Economy of Finance' in World Politics 2013 (co-authored with David Howarth, Sylvia Maxfield and Amy Verdun),

Market-Based Banking and the International Financial Crisis (co-edited with David Howarth). Oxford University Press, 2013.

Financialization and Government Borrowing Capacity in Emerging Markets, Palgrave Macmillan 2012.

'How Much Can Governments Borrow? Financialization and Emerging Markets Government Borrowing Capacity' in Review of International Political Economy 2011

'Die Krise but not La Crise? The Financial Crisis and the Transformation of German and French Banking Systems' in Journal of Common Market Studies 2009 (co-authored with David Howarth);