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 seeks to review the Indian government’s policies relating to AI and Work, to improve understanding of how they are/can be (re)configured to account for and address the informality that characterises Indian urban labour markets.
This project seeks to understand the gendered experiences of UK gig workers, to explore common safety risks associated with e-hailing and delivery work, along with examining risk-mitigation tactics employed by workers in response to platform design.
This project explores how human-AI relations can be conceptualized for lifelong, and the extent to which these relationships impact risks of automation in the workplace.
The latest opinion and comment from our researchers.
17 May 2023
AI technologies are demonstrating their increasingly powerful capabilities, sparking fears of mass unemployment. But we are well-advised to remember that today’s AI-ruled workplaces are craving for human labour.
4 May 2023
Sophisticated computer algorithms used to set prices in online marketplaces put consumers at risk of collusion among sellers, according to a study today from computer scientists at the Oxford Internet Institute and Imperial College.
28 April 2023
For the third year, researchers based at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford, highlight the best and worst companies in the UK platform economy according to how they treat their workers.
The Atlantic, 17 April 2023
ChatGPT is revolutionizing work. The AI-powered chatbot, which can write sophisticated responses to just about any prompt and has passed an MBA exam, is holding its own as a coder and is already helping with professional writing.
Forbes, 11 April 2023
Feature article on Alexandr Wang, the world's youngest self-made billionaire at 24 by supplying artificial intelligence companies with large-scale human labour. The article cites previous research from the Oxford Internet Institute.
The Financial Times, 20 March 2023
Companies want incentives from $280bn support package to create jobs and stave off competition from China.
Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research
Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute. He examines how digital technologies are shaping the organization of economic activities in society.
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.
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.
