I am interested in understanding the social, cultural and ethical underpinnings of the international economic system—and in figuring out their political consequences. I do so by studying international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and by examining the implications of their past and present policies.

My first book, The Limits of Transparency, took a historical look at the inherently ambiguous nature of international financial governance and suggested that institutions that accomodate a certain measure of constructive ambiguity are likely to more effective than those that seek to pursue perfect transparency.

My current research builds on that work in two different ways: a first project on Governing the Margins examines the shifts in the IMF and World Bank's policies towards low income countries since the mid-1990s, trying to understand what is driving the changes and what their implications are for the character of international authority. A second project on Cultural Political Economy, pursued jointly with my colleague Matthew Paterson, seeks to understand the cultural constitution of contemporary economic practices.