The Bangladesh Society for Law and Economics (BSLE) aims to establish the Law and Economics Observatory as a research and knowledge platform dedicated to examining the relationship between legal frameworks, economic incentives, institutional performance, and public policy outcomes in Bangladesh.
How the Observatory fits together
Three research modules will feed a shared data repository, all built on one set of documented methods. Select any part to see what it will do.
Innovation & Intellectual Property Observatory
ProposedCollects and analyses information on patents, trademarks, industrial designs and other intellectual property indicators to understand how IP law and institutions shape innovation, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and market development in Bangladesh.
- Special focus
- Bangladesh’s evolving IP landscape and the legal and economic challenges of graduating from Least Developed Country (LDC) status
- Will produce
- Availability
- Introduced progressively, subject to data availability and methodological verification
Legal Incentives Tracker
ProposedSystematically documents selected laws and regulatory provisions and examines how they shape incentives, individual behaviour, business decisions and policy outcomes, with attention to regulatory transparency, institutional efficiency and market behaviour.
- Each entry examines
- Pilot
- About 15 to 25 selected laws or regulatory provisions, subject to research capacity and source verification
- Will produce
New-Law Economic Review
ProposedApplies economic reasoning and legal analysis to proposed legislation, regulatory reforms and significant legal developments, assessing how they may affect incentives, business behaviour, institutional performance, market efficiency, public expenditure and social welfare.
- Each review weighs
- Will produce
- Standard
- Reviews separate established findings, reasonable projections and areas of uncertainty
Data & Downloads
PlannedA shared repository of datasets, legal and economic indicators and supporting documentation for researchers, academics, policymakers and practitioners.
- Planned datasets
- Formats
Methodology & Documentation
PlannedThe framework every module follows: clearly defined research questions, reliable sources, appropriate methods and systematic documentation, so that results can be checked and reproduced.
- Will cover
- Availability
- Guidelines are published as each module becomes operational
What a tracker entry will contain
The Legal Incentives Tracker will record every law or provision in the same structure, so entries can be compared, checked and reused. This is the planned template; no entries are published yet.
The law
- Legal instrument
- The law, rule or provision, with its official title
- Official source
- A link to the authoritative published text
- Effective date
- When it was enacted and when it took effect
- Sector
- The part of the economy it governs
The economics
- Regulatory objective
- What the rule is meant to achieve
- Affected stakeholders
- Who must comply and who is affected
- Incentives created
- How it changes costs, risks and rewards
- Compliance requirements
- What it obliges people and firms to do
- Institutional responsibility
- Which body administers or enforces it
- Likely behavioural response
- How those affected may respond in practice
The evidence
- Supporting evidence
- The research or data behind the analysis
- Limitations
- What the entry cannot yet show
- Verification
- Who checked the entry, and when
Data and downloads 0
Datasets and downloadable research materials, added after collection, verification, documentation and review.
The first datasets are expected to come from the Legal Incentives Tracker pilot and the Innovation & IP Observatory.
Every dataset will come with
- Open formatsCSV and Excel (XLSX)
- Variable definitionsWhat every column means
- Original sourcesWhere each figure comes from
- Collection datesWhen the data was gathered
- Method notesHow it was collected and coded
- Known limitationsGaps and caveats, stated plainly
- Version informationWhat changed, and when
- Reuse conditionsHow the data may be used and cited
Methods you can check
The Observatory’s work integrates legal analysis, economic reasoning and empirical methods, and documents each step so others can verify and reproduce it.
Reviews will distinguish three kinds of statement
- Established findingSupported by reliable, verifiable evidence.
- Reasonable projectionA reasoned estimate from available evidence, with its assumptions stated.
- Area of uncertaintyWhere evidence is limited or contested, and conclusions are held back.
Defined questions
Each study starts from a clearly defined research question and reliable data sources.
Systematic documentation
Sources, procedures, definitions and assumptions are recorded alongside every output.
Validation and quality
Data is validated and quality-checked before release, with sources properly attributed.
Versions and corrections
Changes are version-controlled, and errors are corrected openly.
Work with the Observatory
Researchers with relevant data, legal expertise or empirical skills can propose a collaboration on any Observatory module.