Benjamin Braun

Benjamin Braun is an Assistant Professor of Political Economy at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is also a fellow at the Hertie School in Berlin, where he leads the DFG-funded research project 'Central banking in hard times: Knowledge, legitimacy, and politics' (KnowLegPo), collaborating with Sciences Po Paris. His research focuses on the political economy of finance and the state, addressing issues such as wealth inequality, green transition dynamics, and monetary policy. Braun holds Master's degrees in political science and economics from the University of Munich and a PhD in political science from the University of Warwick. He previously served as a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and held fellowships at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He currently serves as an associate editor of Competition & Change.

His work interrogates central banking's evolving role in crises, the interplay between financial markets and political institutions, and the macrofinancial implications of climate policy. The KnowLegPo project employs mixed methods—including natural language processing and interviews with policymakers—to analyze central bank interactions with financial markets, governments, expert communities, and the public. Braun’s research has been published in leading journals such as Perspectives on Politics, Socio-Economic Review, and Review of International Political Economy.

His current book project, under contract with the University of Chicago Press, examines 'asset manager capitalism,' exploring how institutional investors reshape corporate governance and economic power structures. Braun’s interdisciplinary approach bridges political science, economics, and financial history, with a focus on institutional agency and structural change in global finance.