Jikon Lai received his doctoral degree from the Department of International Relations in the College of Asia & the Pacific at The Australian National University. He had previously studied at the University of Oxford where he obtained an M.Phil. in International Relations; and the London School of Economics and Political Science, finishing with a B.Sc. in Economics (First Class).

His broad research interests include international political economy, the political economy of East Asian countries, the politics of global finance, economic governance and economic development. In his Ph.D. thesis, Jikon adopted a comparative politics and institutionalist approach to analysing the role of the state in the evolution of the financial sectors of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, post-1997 financial crisis. His thesis has since been revised and will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in mid-2012. Jikon has also published in the Asia Europe Journal and the Journal of the Asia-Pacific Economy. His current research focus is on the politics of the governance of global Islamic finance.