Emanuele Lobina

Dr Emanuele Lobina

Political Economy Fellow 2017-18

Reorienting Industrial Organisation Theory: From Necessary to Possible Outcomes

While government failure and market failure theories respectively predict the necessity of private and public efficiency, both fail to predict the public and private inefficiencies which are empirically pervasive. This failure of prediction is due to deductive reasoning that insulates explanatory claims from the real-world duality of agency and institutions. Oliver Williamson lays the foundations for recognising organisational failures of all kinds, by acknowledging this duality, but remains hamstrung by the limits of deductive reasoning.

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Areas of interest

Political Economy Public Services Water

Cohort

PEF1

Biography

Emanuele Lobina specialises in the political economy of water service reform in the global North and South. His more recent work reconceptualises public service efficiency in light of 21st century global challenges. It also attempts to understand the process and outcome of remunicipalisation, or reverse privatisation. Dr Lobina was awarded an ISRF Political Economy Fellowship (2017-2018). Over the last 20 years, his research has produced policy impact at an international level. He has conducted policy research for and provided expert evidence to international organisations, national and local governments, utilities and their associations, trade unions and civil society organisations. He has been invited to speak at dozens of academic and policy events around the world and his work has been translated into seven languages.

Biographical details correct as of 12.02.25