Associate Teaching Professor in Political Economy, Department of Politics and International Studies

Dr James Wood is an Associate Teaching Professor in Political Economy at the University of Cambridge and Staff Fellow in Politics at Trinity Hall. His research engages directly with questions of growth, inequality, and the institutional conditions for productive investment, with particular expertise in the United States and the United Kingdom. His recent book, States of Innovation: Driving the American Economy in the 21st Century (Bristol University Press, 2025), develops the concept of the "Polycentric Innovation State" to explain how US state and federal governments have developed distinctive innovation ecosystems driving regional growth, challenging conventional accounts of the American political economy. His work has been published in leading journals including Politics & Society, New Political Economy, and the Review of International Political Economy. James also currently serves as Associate Editor at the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. Prior to academia, James spent almost a decade working in the US mortgage industry in Los Angeles, California.