Gayatri Sahgal

I am a doctoral candidate in Area Studies (Africa) at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.

My research focuses on the political economy of fragile contexts. In particular, my interest is in understanding the relationship between private sector development and the state’s revenue earning capacity. Following a mixed method design, I aim to explore the reasons why private sector actors would be interested in paying taxes to weak and low capacity states which are unable to provide the type of regulatory environment or investment in public goods provisioning that is usually considered to be necessary for developing the sector’s productive potential.

I hold a Masters in Public Policy from Brown University (2014), a Masters in Development Studies from the Institute for Development Studies (2008) and a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College (Delhi University).

Wolfson College

Supervisors: Professor Johnny Steinberg and Professor Wale Adebanwi