Nicholas Jepson

Nicholas Jepson is a Lecturer in Global Development at the Global Development Institute (GDI), University of Manchester. He specializes in the political-economic implications of China's global rise, particularly focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), commodity markets, and state-society relations in the Global South. His work bridges historical capitalism theories with contemporary development challenges. He holds a PhD from the University of Bristol (2015) and has taught at Leeds, Bristol, and other institutions internationally.

Research interests include China's financial governance, resource-based development, and comparative methods. He leads the CHERN Working Group on Financial Investments and has conducted fieldwork in Ecuador, Zambia, Jamaica, and South Africa. Awards include the Hallsworth Fellowship (2019) and Leverhulme ECR Fellowship (2019).

Teaching focuses on global political economy, development fundamentals, and research methodologies. He supervises PhD students exploring topics like dam construction decision-making in Ethiopia and Uganda (co-supervised with Tom Lavers).