PhD Candidate in Economics · ISCTE Lisbon
Joshua
Beynon.
I study why some regions fall behind, and what that does to trust in democratic institutions. I came to research after nearly a decade in elected office in Wales, where I was Mayor of Pembroke Dock and Cabinet Member for Finance on Pembrokeshire County Council.
£300m
annual budget overseen as Cabinet Member for Finance
£30m+
budget deficit closed while protecting priority services
70%
recycling rate reached under the waste strategy I led
4
Eurozone economies in my PhD: Portugal, Italy, Greece and France
The research
When places fall behind, does trust in institutions fall with them?
My PhD follows a causal chain. It starts with structural shocks from trade, energy and housing, and traces them through regional decline and economic insecurity to institutional instability. It also asks whether policy buffers can break the chain.
Funded by FCT Supported by an FCT doctoral scholarship from November 2026.
Before the PhD
From the council chamber to the data
I was elected in 2017 at 19, the youngest county councillor in the UK at the time. Since then I've set budgets, closed deficits, written a council's first Net Zero plan, served as Mayor and worked for an MP in the House of Commons. That work taught me how much economic change shapes how people feel about the institutions that govern them. It's the question I now study.
- Mayor · Pembroke Dock
- Cabinet Member for Finance · Pembrokeshire
- Senior Communications Advisor · House of Commons
- One Young World · Munich
- UN Environment Programme · New York
- Future Generations Leadership Academy
Away from work
From Pembrokeshire to Portugal
I grew up in Pembroke Dock on the west Wales coast and now live just outside Lisbon. When I'm not deep in regional data, I'm usually travelling, running, swimming, cycling or practising the piano.
50+
countries visited
🎹
Grade 1 piano, and still learning
B2
Portuguese, exam coming up
🏃
Ultramarathon finisher
Get in touch
Let's talk regions, research or policy.
I'm always happy to hear from researchers, policymakers and journalists working on regional inequality, political economy or public finance.