Active research projects

A project funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s (ISCF) Next Generation Services Research Programme and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

This is a collaboration between Oxford Saïd and the faculties of Law, Economics, Computer Science and Education at the University of Oxford. The proposed research will explore the potential and limitations of using artificial intelligence (AI) in support of legal services.

A comparative perspective with Europe

Funded by the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE),  INCAS aims to create a top-level research and advanced training network on institutional change in Asia, in comparative perspective with Europe.

Akshay Mangla is leading a set of research projects focused on state capacity in frontline agencies in South Asia. 

He is Principal Investigator (with collaborators from the University of Virginia) on a project examining police responsiveness and women’s security in India. The project investigates the political and institutional factors behind the adoption and implementation of women’s security reforms, and analyses the impact of reforms on police behaviour, crime reporting and citizen trust. The project is funded by the MIT Poverty Action Lab’s Crime & Violence Initiative, the World Bank-Sexual Violence Research Initiative, and the Oxford GCRF Research England fund. 

Akshay is leading a second study on primary education reform in rural India. The project, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, investigates how differences in the norms and culture of bureaucracy lead to variation in the delivery of government programs for universal primary education. Together, these projects aim to understand when, why and how frontline state agencies build the capabilities to perform their core functions effectively.

In the past twenty-five years, firms, NGOs and international organisations have created transnational regulatory institutions that specify sets of standards and attempt to enforce these standards.Transnational regulatory institutions, also known as private regulation, have become a dominant policy solution, yet intense debates remain about how they function and their influence on labour politics. Despite the controversy, we still know little about how these institutions influence the behaviour of lead firms and suppliers. 

In a series of interrelated projects, members of the International Business Group investigate the politics and implementation of private regulation. One set of papers out of this stream of research analyses how private regulation interacts with state regulation.  Another set of papers probes how standards influence commercial relations between firms as well as working conditions and, ultimately, the impact of incentives created by these programs on compliance with labour standards. A third set of studies examines what workers want from these private regulatory institutions.