Skip to main content

Research themes

The Centre brings together experts across several disciplines working together to understand how the interactions between individuals, communities, business and institutions shape socio-economic outcomes, and what can be done to improve these outcomes. Our research focus is on three broad areas.

Law and Economics of Financial Regulation 

Research leads: Dr. Dilly Karim and Dr Francesco De Pascalis 

  • Stability, transparency and accountability in the financial markets;
  • Ethics, governance and compliance in the corporate and banking sectors;
  • Behavioural aspects of regulation and institutions;
  • Sustainable economic development and financial inclusion. 

This research theme is led by Dr. Dilly Karim and Dr. Francesco De Pascalis. Read their profiles here.

Dilly Karim researches financial stability and macroprudential analysis.  She has worked with the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, investigating banking crises and their prediction. Her main research focus has been on the design of Early Warning Systems for banking crises including linear and non-linear estimators, contributing to the Bank of England, EU Commission, the European Central Bank, HM Treasury and the Financial Services Authority’s (now PRA’s) interest in these areas. She was the principal investigator on an ESRC grant for research on the Early Warning Systems for crises in Latin America and Asia. Dr Karim and her co-authors worked on the Basel III framework as commissioned by the Financial Services Authority, to investigate the optimal regulation of bank capital and liquidity. This produced a recommendations capital should be increased by 4 per cent, as was adopted by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel as the core basis for changes in regulation which continue to be implemented internationally. Dr Karim also works on the policy justifications of countercyclical capital buffers, the impact of macroprudential rules on bank profitability and the wider economy via recent grant-aided work for the Bank of England. She is involved in organising the Third Brunel Banking Conference and with her co-authors is currently setting up the Centre for Banking Research at Brunel University London. This will concentrate research on four core areas: (1) Financial Stability (2) Macroprudential regulation and policy (3) Pension fund behaviour and regulation and (4) Bank behaviour.

Dr. Francesco De Pascalis is the author of "Credit Ratings and Market Over-reliance: An International Legal Analysis" (Brill-Nijhoff 2017), the chapter on "FinTech credit firms: Prospects and uncertainties", in Routledge Handbook of Financial Technology and Law (Chiu, IH-Y. and Deipenbrock, G., eds; Routledge, forthcoming 2021, and numerous research articles in this field. He is the member of SUSFIN, a newly established Research Network for Sustainable Finance, based at the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich. Prof. Arad Reisberg is the member of the, Financial Markets Law Committee Advisory Group at the Bank of England on Brexit and an invited member of the Financial Markets Law Committee in the Bank of England's Radar Programme. Dr. De Pascalis, Prof. Reisberg and other team members work on various issues related to stability, transparency and accountability in the financial markets; ethics, governance and compliance in the corporate and banking sectors; behavioural aspects of regulations and institutions, and sustainable economic development and financial inclusion.

The group includes Prof. Arad Reisberg, who is the member of the, Financial Markets Law Committee Advisory Group at the Bank of England on Brexit and an invited member of the Financial Markets Law Committee in the Bank of England's Radar Programme. Prof. Reisberg and other team members work on various issues related to stability, transparency and accountability in the financial markets; ethics, governance and compliance in the corporate and banking sectors; behavioural aspects of regulations and institutions, and sustainable economic development and financial inclusion.

 

Economic Analysis of Law

Research leads: Dr Matteo Pazzona and  Dr Hayleigh Bosher

  • The role of economic efficiency and incentives in the legal system;
  • Infringement and enforcement of property rights in digital age;
  • Discrimination in the criminal justice system;
  • Proliferation and prevention of crime in networks
  • Violence and conflict resolution

The research leads on this theme are Dr. Hayleigh Bosher and Dr. Matteo Pazzona. Read their profiles here.

 Dr. Bosher is an expert in the intellectual property law and copyright enforcement and infringement in the entertainment industries and, more recently, in artifical intelligence. She is the author of "Law, Technology and Cognition: The Human Element in Online Copyright Infringement " (Routledge, 2019) and "Copyright in the Music Industry" (Edward Elgar, forthcoming in 2021). Dr. Pazzona's expertise is in the economics of crime, conflict and violence. His articles "Migrating mafia", "Protest Treatment and its Impact on the WTP and WTA: estimates for theft and robbery in the UK" and other research have been published in leading academic journals. The research of the team members focusses on the role of economic efficiency and incentives in the legal system, infringement and enforcement of property rights in digital age, discrimination in the criminal justice system, proliferation and prevention of crime in networks, and the economics of violence and conflict resolution.

Law and Economics of Public Finance and institutions

Research leads: Professor Nigar Hashimzade and Dr Stelios Andreadakis

  • Environmental taxes and sustainable development;
  • Optimal taxation in a digital economy;
  • Behavioural approach to tax administration and tax compliance;
  • Corporate and individual tax avoidance;
  • Tax incentives to R&D and productivity growth.

This research theme is led by Dr. Stelios Andreadakis and Prof. Nigar Hashimzade. Read their profiles here.

Dr. Andreadakis is an expert in corporate governance and regulation of companies. His research in the role of whistle-blowers and corporate scandals in the change in legislation will be published in book (Edward Elgar, forthcoming). Prof. Hashimzade's research expertise is in public economics with focus on taxation, among other issues. She co-edited "Routledge Companion to Tax Avoidance Research" (Routledge, 2017) and conducted research on behavioural approach to tax compliance and the use of data analytics in tax audits. Dr. Christine Riefa is a leading expert in consumer law and e-commerce. She published "Consumer Theories of Harm - an economic approach to consumer law enforcement and policy making" (Hart Publishing, 2019; with P. Siciliani and H. Gamper) and is member of two Working Groups on Consumer Protection and Electronic Commerce (unfair commercial practices and cross-border enforcement) as part of UNCTAD Inter-Governmental Group of Experts.