Gabriel's research focuses on economic sociology, market sociology, expert sociology, and comparative historical sociology. In particular, his work examines the various market-based mechanisms used as instruments of public policy, focusing on the technical and political controversies surrounding their design and implementation, and paying special attention to the field of education. His previous research at UCL tests the public policy assumption that liberalizing the supply side of education quasi-markets through the opening of "free schools" in England has a favorable impact, via competitive pressures, on neighboring schools. In parallel, and in continuity with his doctoral work, Gabriel studies the influence of expert knowledge on the processes of institutionalization and reform of high-stakes rankings in Chile, a central element of the "market model" in education. A third line of research seeks to theorize the role of economists in the design and implementation of deferred acceptance algorithms, as instruments for the construction of "fair" school markets, comparing the cases of Chile and New Orleans.

social and political studies, economy and society