Dr Sandy Hager
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About
Overview
My current research analyzes corporate power against the backdrop of the mental health crisis. One project investigates Silicon Valley's anti-ageing movement as a manifestation of the death-denying pathologies of contemporary capitalism. Another project examines the business models of companies that are racing to develop and patent psychedelic compounds and therapies for the treatment of various psychiatric disorders.
I welcome supervision requests from prospective PhD students researching the political economy aspects of:
• Corporate power
• Capitalization
• Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, psychedelics
• Death and anti-ageing
• Mental health
Publications
Publications by category
Books (2)
- Hager, S.B. (2016). Public Debt, Inequality, and Power: The Making of a Modern Debt State. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520284661.
- Hansen, P. and Hager, S.B. (2010). The politics of European citizenship: Deepening contradictions in social rights and migration policy.
Chapters (5)
- Hager, S.B. (2023). Capital as Death Denial. In Samman, A. and Gammon, E. (Eds.), Clickbait Capitalism: Economies of Desire in the Twenty-First Century Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526168160.
- Hager, S.B. (2023). Capital as death denial. Clickbait capitalism Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526168177.
- Hager, S.B. (2013). The power of investment banks: Surplus absorption or differential capitalization? Capitalist Mode of Power Critical Engagements with the Power Theory of Value (pp. 39-58).
- Hager, S. (2012). Investment bank power and neoliberal regulation: From the Volcker shock to the Volcker rule. In Overbeek, H. and van Apeldoorn, B. (Eds.), Neoliberalism in Crisis (pp. 68-92). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137002471.
- In van Apeldoorn, B., Drahokoupil, J. and Horn, L. (Eds.), (2009). Contradictions and Limits of Neoliberal European Governance. In Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9781349358861.
Internet publication
- Hager, S.B.(2017).Trump and the Bond Market. Foreign Affairs.
Journal articles (15)
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2025). Rentiership and intellectual monopoly in contemporary capitalism: conceptual challenges and empirical possibilities. Socio-Economic Review, 23(4), pp. 1705-1733. doi:10.1093/ser/mwae076
- Hager, S.B. (2025). The shifting fortunes of corporate psychedelia. Finance and Society pp. 1-23. doi:10.1017/fas.2025.10014
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2023). From passive owners to planet savers? Asset managers, carbon majors and the limits of sustainable finance. Competition & Change, 27(3-4), pp. 449-471. doi:10.1177/10245294221130432
- Dafe, F., Hager, S.B., Naqvi, N. and Wansleben, L. (2022). Introduction: The Structural Power of Finance Meets Financialization. Politics & Society, 50(4), pp. 523-542. doi:10.1177/00323292221125563
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2022). Commodity traders in a storm: financialization, corporate power and ecological crisis. Review of International Political Economy, 29(4), pp. 1053-1084. doi:10.1080/09692290.2021.1872039
- Samman, A., Boy, N., Coombs, N., Hager, S., Hayes, A., Rosamond, E.... Westermeier, C. (2022). After the boom: Finance and society studies in the 2020s and beyond. Finance and Society, 8(2), pp. 93-109. doi:10.2218/finsoc.7761
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2021). The Great Debt Divergence and its Implications for the Covid-19 Crisis: Mapping Corporate Leverage as Power. New Political Economy, 26(5), pp. 885-901. doi:10.1080/13563467.2020.1865900
- Hager, S.B. (2021). Varieties of top incomes? Socio-Economic Review, 18(4), pp. 1175-1198. doi:10.1093/ser/mwy036
- Hager, S.B. and Baines, J. (2020). The Tax Advantage of Big Business: How the Structure of Corporate Taxation Fuels Concentration and Inequality. Politics & Society, 48(2), pp. 275-305. doi:10.1177/0032329220911778
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2020). Financial Crisis, Inequality, and Capitalist Diversity: A Critique of the Capital as Power Model of the Stock Market. New Political Economy, 25(1), pp. 122-139. doi:10.1080/13563467.2018.1562434
- Hager, S.B. (2017). A global bond: Explaining the safe-haven status of US Treasury securities. European Journal of International Relations, 23(3), pp. 557-580. doi:10.1177/1354066116657400
- Hager, S.B. (2015). Corporate ownership of the public debt: mapping the new aristocracy of finance. Socio-Economic Review, 13(3), pp. 505-523. doi:10.1093/ser/mwv013
- Hager, S.B. (2014). What Happened to the Bondholding Class? Public Debt, Power and the Top One Per Cent. New Political Economy, 19(2), pp. 155-182. doi:10.1080/13563467.2013.768613
- Hager, S.B. (2013). America's Real 'Debt Dilemma'. Review of Capital as Power, 1(1), pp. 41-62
- van Apeldoorn, B. and Hager, S.B. (2010). The social purpose of new governance: Lisbon and the limits to legitimacy. Journal of International Relations and Development, 13(3), pp. 209-238. doi:10.1057/jird.2010.9
Reports (7)
- Hager, S.B. and Baines, J. (2023). Does the US Tax Code Encourage Market Concentration? An Empirical Analysis of the Effect of the Corporate Tax Structure on Profit Shares and Shareholder Payouts. Roosevelt Institute.
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2022). Profiting Amid the Energy Crisis: The Distribution Networks at the Heart of the UK's Gas and Electricity System. Common Wealth.
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2022). Performing without Transforming: The Case for a Windfall Tax in the United States. Common Wealth.
- Baines, J. and Hager, S.B. (2022). Drilling Down: UK Oil and Gas Financial Performance. Common Wealth.
- Hager, S.B., Baines, J. and Brett, M. (2021). Power Ahead: An Energy System Fit for the Future. Common Wealth.
- Hager, S.B., Brett, M. and Baines, J. (2021). All Aboard: Transforming Bus Services. Common Wealth.
- Buller, A., Lawrence, M., Hager, S.B. and Baines, J. (2020). Commoning the Company. Common Wealth.