“States of Innovation: Driving the American Economy in the 21 Century" - Dr James Wood

Date: 18 March 2026
Time: 18:00 -19:30
Speaker:  Dr James Wood
Talk Title: “States of Innovation: Driving the American Economy in the 21 Century"
Location: Ramsden room, St Catharine's College

Talk Overview:
Prevailing accounts of the US economy characterise it either as a quintessential liberal market economy, driven by competitive markets and institutional complementarities, or as a consumption-driven economy supported by rising house prices and household debt. States of Innovation: Driving the American Economy in the 21st Century challenges both views. Drawing on detailed case studies of the federal government and the states of Maine, Michigan, California, and Texas since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the book puts forward a new theoretical framework, the Polycentric Innovation State, to capture the significant, yet often overlooked, roles of federal and state governments in shaping America's innovation ecosystem. Rather than taking a backseat to the market, governments at multiple levels have employed mission-oriented policies, direct investment, and strategic coordination to address structural economic challenges and foster innovation-led growth. This polycentric system produces variegated innovation-led growth regimes across US states, each with distinct institutional configurations reflecting different compromises between capital, labour, and sectoral interests. These findings have significant implications for Comparative and American Political Economy, challenging the methodological nationalism of frameworks like Varieties of Capitalism and redefining our understanding of the institutional foundations of the US economy.  The book also makes a key contribution by integrating the variegated, multi-scalar character of US capitalism into International Political Economy, demonstrating how federal and state-level growth strategies interact to produce distinct regional innovation regimes that collectively underpin America's international competitiveness.

Speaker Overview:
Dr James Wood is Associate Teaching Professor in Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies, where he writes about Comparative Political Economy, innovation policy, housing markets, and household debt. He also holds a Staff Fellowship in Politics at Trinity Hall and is an Associate Editor at the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. James’ research has been published in Politics & Society, Review of International Political Economy, New Political Economy, and The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. He has also held visiting positions at Copenhagen Business School and King's College London and before academia he worked in the US mortgage industry for almost a decade.