Postdoctoral Research Associate Comparative Political Economy of Market Competition

Role:

Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Comparative Political Economy of Market Competition

Grade 7 - £37,694 - £47,389 per annum

Full Time (1

FTE), Fixed Term for 33 months

33 days annual leaveplus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)

Markets Under Siege:
How Geoeconomic Competition Undermines Free Markets

Based at Panmure House, Edinburgh. Reporting to Professor Adam Dixon, Adam Smith Chair (Principal Investigator).

Markets Under Siege investigates why liberal democracies increasingly depart from free market principles when facing competitive pressure from China, often on the basis of simplified narratives about Chinese “state capitalism” that may not align with the accumulated empirical evidence. The project runs for 33 months and comprises three research components operating in parallel, each led by a postdoctoral researcher and integrated through monthly team meetings and quarterly integration workshops:

Component 1 — Mechanisms of Justification for Geoeconomic Intervention: systematic mapping of the rhetorical strategies and institutional mechanisms through which liberal democracies justify departures from market principles.

Component 2 — Systematic Evidence Review on Market Competition: systematic literature review and meta-analysis of evidence on competitive dynamics in Chinese and Western markets.

Component 3 — Intellectual History of Liberal Market Principles Under Competitive Pressure: analysis of how liberal thinkers from Adam Smith to the Cold War liberals understood the relationship between international competition and market freedom.

The project launches in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations, and includes an international workshop series in Edinburgh, Washington DC, Asia and London. Planned outputs include seven to nine peer-reviewed articles, policy briefs, public essays and a project monograph.

Each postholder takes day-to-day intellectual and operational responsibility for one of the project’s three research components, under the supervision of the Principal Investigator. The posts are designed to give early-career scholars substantial autonomy and first-authorship opportunities within a coordinated collective endeavour: each postholder leads the design and delivery of their component’s research, publishes from it, and contributes actively to the integration of findings across components.

The posts also carry a significant engagement dimension, including delivery of the workshop series, policy briefs and public-facing outputs.

Supervision is provided through biweekly one-to-one meetings with the Principal Investigator, alongside mentorship in publication strategy and peer review. Postholders will also work directly with the project’s visiting scholars during their residencies at Panmure House.

• Design, plan and deliver the research programme for the assigned component within the 33-month timetable, in consultation with the Principal Investigator.
• Conduct primary and secondary research using the methods specified for the component, including the collection, coding, management and analysis of qualitative and/or quantitative material.
• Design and conduct semi-structured elite interviews, including topic guides, participant recruitment, transcription and analysis.
• Secure and maintain research ethics approval and manage data in line with University policy, funder requirements and applicable data protection law.
• Maintain transparent and reproducible research records, including search protocols, coding frameworks and analytical decisions.

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