Michaela Hamilton is a researcher in the Department of International Relations, specialising in the political economy of finance, housing and the household. Her PhD thesis, "Mortgage Britain and the rise of monetary policy, 1931-2007", engages the puzzle of government accountability in a financialised economy, together with a longstanding debate about how interest-rate policy achieves its effects. Challenging the view that the rise of central banking represents a turn from states to markets, the thesis shows that the power of interest-rate policy to control the UK macroeconomy has pivoted on an increasing control of policy over housing costs and hence over discretionary household income. The thesis take a historical approach, showing how housing costs became the main lever that policymakers use to steer the UK economy.

Michaela's research interests include:

• Monetary policy and central banking
• Histories of housing crisis
• Political economy of the household
• Mortgage suburbia
• Historical methodology in International Political Economy

Recent presentations and talks:

• BISA (British International Studies Association) Annual Conference, June 2026
• Finance and Society, Copenhagen Business School, September 2025
• SPERI workshop "This is Crisis", September 2025
• Valuation, Space and Power, Sheffield University, June 2025
• Finance and Society, Sheffield University Management School, September 2024

Teaching experience:

• Introduction to International Political Economy
• Globalisation and Global Governance
• Development and the State
• The Making of the Modern World Economy (at City, University of London)
• Introduction to Political Economy (at City, University of London)