The Science of Startups Initiative
This project aims to reveal the determinants of success in entrepreneurship, startups and innovation ecosystems using data science and qualitative research methods.
Economics plays a central role in policy, business, and competition regulation—not to mention debates on issues ranging from intellectual property to network neutrality. It’s important to understand how technology shapes economic life, and to study the economic and social implications of new market structures and business models.
Economic analysis can be used as a methodological toolset for rigorous thinking about important social issues, with strong positive and normative policy statements emerging naturally from this foundation.
This project aims to reveal the determinants of success in entrepreneurship, startups and innovation ecosystems using data science and qualitative research methods.
This project seeks to apply the principles of AI for Fair Work, by using these as a benchmark for empirical on workers’ experiences of the implementation of AI systems in the workplace.
This project seeks to provide an economic model of data-driven mergers: mergers involving a significant transfer of data between firms. It will study how they affect competition in the relevant markets, to identify potential harms and guide policy.
The latest opinion and comment from our researchers.
29 April 2024
Five faculty members have received Dieter Schwarz Foundation (DSF) funding, enabling them to begin new 12-month research projects at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII).
16 April 2024
The OII and the OSGA have appointed Dr Janaki Srinivasan to a joint post as Associate Professor in Digital South Asian Studies.
27 February 2024
2023 was the year AI really made its mark. It's been a wild ride for everyone from office workers to big companies, with even the experts scratching their heads.
Fortune, 19 May 2024
When CEOs talk to investors about layoffs, they usually blame economic uncertainty or business “headwinds.” Now a new term is starting to crop up in these announcements: AI.
The Hill, 16 May 2024
Worker productivity gains enabled by AI are concentrated at the lower end of the skill and income spectrum, a phenomenon that economists and labor unions warn could supercharge the practice of outsourcing jobs to lower paid regions of the globe.
Die ZEIT, 25 April 2024
An exclusive analysis of millions of job postings shows where artificial intelligence is taking over work. Find out if your industry is affected.
Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research
Vili Lehdonvirta examines the politics and socio-economic impacts of digital technologies. He is one of the world's most cited authors on gig work and the platform economy. His current research deals with the geopolitics of digital infrastructures.
Many of the OII’s faculty work on digital economies, including Vili Lehdonvirta, who is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute. Lehdonvirta is an economic sociologist whose research focuses on digital technologies, such as apps, platforms, and marketplaces — how they are governed, how they shape the organization of economic activities, and with what implications to workers, consumers, businesses, and policy. His research has been published in the Journal of Management, New Media & Society, Sociology, and other leading academic journals.
Lehdonvirta is the principal investigator of iLabour, a major research project on online freelancing and the gig economy, funded by the European Research Council. He has also led research projects on online labour markets’ effects in rural areas and crowdworkers’ skill development. His other recent research takes a critical look at Bitcoin and blockchain. His previous research on virtual goods, virtual consumption and digital games is summarized in Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis, published by MIT Press and translated to Chinese by China Renmin University Press.
Lehdonvirta’s research draws on theories and approaches from economic sociology, new institutional economics, labour sociology, and science and technology studies. He and his students and postdoctoral researchers use a range of conventional social research methods as well as novel data science approaches. Lehdonvirta sits on the editorial boards of the journals Policy & Internet, The Information Society, Electronic Commerce Research and the Journal of International Business Policy.
Research into economics at the OII is carried out by faculty and students from diverse background. Some of our researchers were trained in economics, while others apply the lenses of other disciplines, like geography, sociology, and data science, to economic problems.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Greg Taylor's research focuses on the economics of competition policy and regulation for digital and technology markets.
Professor of Internet Geography
Mark Graham is an economic geographer. His research focuses on digital labour, the gig economy, and digital inequalities. He is the author, most recently, of The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction.
Former Research Associate
Matthew Cole was a Postdoctoral Researcher with Fairwork, investigating global platforms. His research interests include the political economy of technology and platforms, particularly the transformation of work.