Yasaman Saeidi

Yasaman Saeidi

PhD Candidate in Economics · London School of Economics

Y.Saeidi@lse.ac.uk CV Google Scholar

I am a PhD candidate in Economics at the London School of Economics, supervised by Stephen Machin and Tom Kirchmaier at the Centre for Economic Performance. I use quasi-experimental designs and large administrative datasets to study how infrastructure, economic shocks and public programmes shape crime and victimisation, linking labour, education and urban economics.

I hold an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.

Primary Labour Economics · Economics of Crime · Economics of Education
Secondary Urban Economics

I am on the 2026–27 job market. My job market paper, Transport and Local Crime Dynamics, is available here.

Research

Job Market Paper

Transport and Local Crime Dynamics

Paper (PDF)

Transport infrastructure reshapes economic activity, and crime is among its least measured local consequences. Do new transport nodes create criminal opportunities and change how far offenders travel? I combine the staggered expansion of a large urban light rail network with police records giving offence locations and identified offenders’ home addresses, using areas around stations that were planned but not built as controls. Station openings raise property crime by 12 percent, concentrated where property is left unattended and absent where a victim must be present. Offender addresses open a second margin, the location of offending. Crime commuting lengthens: the distance offenders travel to property offences rises by 0.47 km and does not rise for violent offences. A gravity model shows that the network’s travel-time savings move offender flows: a minute saved raises property flows by 4.9 percent.

Publications

Football, Alcohol, and Domestic Abuse

with Ria Ivandić, Tom Kirchmaier and Neus Torres Blas

Journal of Public Economics, 2024, vol. 230, 105031

Featured in the Harvard Kennedy School Gender Action Portal

Working Papers

Boom, Bust, Echo: Cost of Living and Crime in London

with Magdalena Dominguez and Tom Kirchmaier

Work in Progress

Origins and Triggers of Hate Crime Offending in England

with Ria Ivandić, Stephen Machin and Shqiponja Telhaj

Currently in the data gathering stage.

Transport and Victimisation

Using the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

Policy Reports

Step Together Pilot Report

with Tom Kirchmaier, Shubhangi Agrawal, Julia Friedberg and Ricky Wang

Youth Endowment Fund, January 2025

An evaluation of the Step Together pilot, which placed trained adult chaperones on routes used by children walking to and from school across the West Midlands. The study assesses whether a robust quantitative evaluation of the programme is feasible, using police administrative data and the National Pupil Database to examine crime, antisocial behaviour, school attendance and attainment.

Developing District-Level Environmental Scores for Vietnam

with Yohan Iddawela and Son Le

Internal report, Green Economy Diagnostic Project (505 Economics, for the World Bank), January 2023

Teaching

Teaching Awards

London School of Economics

Course evaluations available on request.

Sharif Graduate School of Management and Economics