Christopher Clayton, assistant professor of finance, has received an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program to support his research in the emerging field of geoeconomics.
NSF CAREER awards recognize early-career scholars who “have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education.” The award, which is among the most prestigious conferred by the agency, includes a federal grant of $400,000 to support work over a five-year period.
Geoeconomics—the study of how countries use economic power to achieve their financial or political goals—gained prominence after World War II and has become newly relevant due to competition among great powers such as the U.S. and China. Clayton, whose 2023 working paper “A Framework for Geoeconomics” provides a mathematical model for understanding this phenomenon, will research the consequences of attempts by different governments to wield geoeconomic might; competition among the world’s great powers; and methods by which countries resist unwanted influence. He will also conduct further research on the empirical measurement of geoeconomic power.
Clayton, who joined the Yale SOM faculty in 2020 after receiving his PhD at Harvard University, studies international finance and macroeconomics, with a focus on reserve currency internationalization, multinational banking, and monetary policy. He has previously received 2024 Best Paper Award in Geoeconomics award and won the 2020 AQR Top Finance Graduate Award.