Miao Dai is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Spatial Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Environmental Economics - Montpellier (CEE-M), France. He obtained his PhD in Economics from McGill University, Canada, in 2023.

He is an applied microeconomist, with research interests in environmental and resource economics, industrial organization, international trade and dynamic games.

Currently, he is exploring the role of critical minerals in the transition to clean energy. Specifically, he is involved in three collaborative research projects: the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)-funded project on Critical Minerals and the Clean Energy Transition, with Joëlle Noailly, Steven Poelhekke, and Gerard van der Meijden; the French National Research Agency (ANR)-funded ScarCyclET project on Materials Scarcity and Recycling for the Energy Transition, with Francesco Ricci and Mouez Fodha; and the Québec Circular Economy Research Network (RRECQ)-funded project on “Oligopolistic competition, recycling and strategic trade policy in the geopolitical competition for critical materials in the energy transition”, with Hassan Benchekroun. The topics under investigation include understanding the role of critical metals’ recycling in their trade and geopolitical frictions, exploring the economic and policy implications of geopolitical challenges for the availability of critical minerals, and investigating policy solutions to mitigate environmental challenges posed by the mining and extraction of critical minerals, among many others.