Robyn Klingler-Vidra

Lecturer in Political Economy, King's College London.

Robyn Klingler-Vidra is a Lecturer in Political Economy in the Department of International Development at King's College London.
Robyn’s research focuses on government efforts to build venture capital markets as a means to promote innovation, economic growth, and development. She has led the World Economic Forum’s annual UK Executive Opinion Survey on global competitiveness since 2009 and has, since 2011, been Senior Programme Adviser for LSE Enterprise, designing and delivering courses on capital markets, political economy, economic competitiveness and innovation.

Her publications include articles on the development of venture capital markets in East Asia and how policy models transform as they diffuse in journals including Socio-Economic Review, International Studies Review, The Pacific Review and Asian Studies Review. She has also published a number of policy papers on economic growth and a working paper on the social impact of business. Her book, The Venture Capital State: The Silicon Valley Model in East Asia, develops the concept of 'contextual rationality' to explain how and why the highly-regarded Silicon Valley venture capital policy model is adapted in each and every country as it diffuses.

Robyn received her BA from the University of Michigan, was a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and completed her MSc and PhD in International Political Economy in the International Relations Department at the London School of Economics & Political Science. Robyn was the first-ever winner of the BISA Award for Teaching Excellence by a Postgraduate Student and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.