Johannes Petry

ESRC Doctoral Research Fellow in International Political Economy, University of Warwick
I am an ESRC Doctoral Research Fellow and PhD Candidate in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick, researching the transformation of global finance and the infrastructures underpinning it. Trained as a political economist, I studied political science, economics, comparative public policy and international political economy. Between my studies and starting a PhD, I worked in finance for two years to obtain more practical knowledge about financial markets. Applying these insights, my research focuses on the infrastructural arrangements enable the functioning of financial markets.

In my PhD research, I research the development of Chinese capital markets and their integration into global finance and focus on the role (stock and derivative) exchanges play as crucial actors in processes of capital market development. While they share some characteristics with ‘global’ capital markets, Chinese capital markets function quite differently because China’s state-owned exchanges facilitate the development of capital markets that follow an institutional logic of and are embedded in China’s state capitalism. Instead of following a neoliberal rulebook, the exchanges facilitate the state’s ability to control capital markets and to direct market outcomes towards certain state policies, both within China and internationally. These findings have important implications for political economy debates on the transformation of China’s capitalism, its integration into the Global Financial Order, trajectories of financialisation as well as the politics of infrastructures in global finance.

My research draws on extensive fieldwork in Beijing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Singapore, Frankfurt and London where I conducted 130+ expert interviews and gained ethnographic insights from attending 25+ financial industry events. While I also draw on statistical financial data, I am rather interested in the emergence of the infrastructures that enable these financial flows in the first place.

During my research, I also held positions as visiting fellow at The City University of Hong Kong (May-July 2017), Goethe University Frankfurt (Jan-March 2018), the Fudan Development Institute in Shanghai (April-May 2018), Peking University’s International Political Economy Center (Oct-Nov 2018) and at East China Normal University in Shanghai (Sep-Oct 2019).

I am also a co-founder and -organiser of the Warwick Critical Finance Group.