Benjamin Braun is a political economist working on international & comparative political economy. He focuses on macroeconomic policy, financial markets and the growth of the asset management industry.

His work on what he terms “Asset Manager Capitalism” has opened up a new avenue of research into the political economy of finance, by looking at the structural power of institutional investors, most notably the ‘big 3’ asset managers of Blackrock, State Street and Vanguard.

In his talk, Benjamin will outline what the power of these actors means for the state of modern finance capitalism, the conducting of macroeconomic policy-making and even how this can have a knock on effect for social policy, such as through its effect on pension funds.