Our People
Dr Matthew Amengual
Fellow, Official Fellow
Associate Professor in International Business
Saïd Business School
AB Environmental Studies (Brown), MA and PhD (MIT)
Matthew Amengual is Associate Professor of International Business at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Broadly, he investigates the politics of promoting economic development that is both equitable and sustainable. His work focuses on the interactions between firms, government bureaucracies, and societal organisations in countries with weak institutions.
His first book, Politicized Enforcement in Argentina: Labor and Environmental Regulation, was published by Cambridge University Press. This book asks the question: Why do states enforce regulations in some places, and in some industries, but not in others? It develops a framework for analysing enforcement in middle-income and developing countries, showing how informal linkages between state officials and groups within society allow officials to gain the operational resources and political support necessary for enforcement.
His second book, Communities, Mines, and Distributive Politics: Direct Contestation in the Andes, was published by Oxford University Press. This book examines the unmediated contestation between firms and societal actors. It asks: Why does pressure on firms sometimes result in expanded access to essential public goods, services, and economic opportunities and sometimes does not? It answers this question through the study of mines and nearby communities in Bolivia and Peru.
He has an active research agenda on the ways in which labour standards are enforced in global supply chains. For over a decade, he has studied how to improve the regulation of decent work in factories linked to global supply chains.
Dr Amengual’s research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Management Science, World Development, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Regulation & Governance, Politics & Society, and Desarrollo Económico. He is currently an Associate Editor at the Industrial and Labor Relations Review. Prior to joining the Saïd Business School, Amengual was an Associate Professor of Work and Organization Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Amengual received his AB in environmental studies from Brown University, and his Master’s in city planning and PhD in political science, both from MIT.
More information about his work is available here: https://www.mattamengual.net/