European Seminars on the Economics of Crime (ESEC)

European Seminars on the Economics of Crime take place on Fridays, 1pm - 2pm (2 - 3pm CET), unless otherwise stated.

This series is part of the CEP's Crime Research Group.

Click on an individual seminar to find more details and add the event to your calendar.

This series is co-organised with Anna Bindler (DIW Berlin and University of Potsdam), Gianmarco Daniele (CLEAN Unit, Bocconi University), Randi Hjalmarsson (University of Gothenburg), Nadine Ketel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ), Tom Kirchmaier (London School of Economics) and Olivier Marie (Erasmus University Rotterdam).

Participants are expected to adhere to the CEP Events Code of Conduct.

Upcoming
Past

Friday, October 2, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Ethnic Representation in the Police Force: Effect on Minority Youth

We study how ethnic representation within the police force affects the outcomes of youth in minority communities. Using Swedish administrative data, we identify the first police officer from a given ethnic group and neig...Read more...

Ulrika Ahrsjo (Uppsala Universitet)

This event is both online and in person

SAL B.07, Basement, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, October 16, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

TBA

Michel Marechal (University of Zurich)

This event is both online and in person

SAL B.07, Basement, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, October 30, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Network Spillovers and the Social Returns to Crime-Reduction Interventions

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are influential in shaping policy to address the massive social harm from crime. Yet crime-prevention experiments typically ignore the possibility of peer spillovers, which could misre...Read more...

Sara Heller (University of Michigan)

This event is both online and in person

SAL B.07, Basement, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, November 13, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

A Few Bad Apples? Academic Dishonesty, Political Selection, and Institutional Performance in China

Honesty is perceived as fundamental to societal functioning, motivating education systems worldwide to enforce strict oversight and impose heavy penalties for dishonest behavior. Yet much academic misconduct remains unex...Read more...

Wenwei Peng (Hong Kong Baptist University)

This event is both online and in person

SAL 4.10, 4th Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, November 27, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

TBA

Sonia Bhalotra (University of Warwick)

This event is both online and in person

SAL B.07, Basement, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, December 11, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

TBA

Rocco Machiavello (LSE)

This event is both online and in person

SAL 4.10, 4th Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, September 18, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

TBA

Mikkel Mertz (The ROCKWOOL Foundation, IZA)

SAL B.07, Basement, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, June 19, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

CANCELLED: Youth Assault Victimization as a Two-Generation Shock: Evidence on Parental Spillovers

This event is both online and in person

SAL 3.05, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, June 5, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Reducing Gun Violence at Scale

Baltimore's homicide rate fell by roughly 60% between 2022 and 2025, an exceptional decline among large U.S. cities. At the start of this period, Baltimore launched a strategy that concentrated police and social service ...Read more...

Max Kapustin (Cornell)

This event is both online and in person

SAL 3.05, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, May 22, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Pay or Performance? Retaining Emotionally Stable Police Officers

Growing evidence shows that 1) police officer performance differs by personal characteristics, and 2) many countries are struggling to retain officers. How do different types of officers respond to different retention st...Read more...

Mitchell Downey (Stockholm University)

This event is both online and in person

SAL 3.05, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, May 8, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Role of Expertise in Consistency in Decision-Making: Experimental Evidence with Public Prosecutors and Law Students

Michal Soltes (Faculty of Law Charles University)

This event is both online and in person

SAL 1.04, 1st Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Friday, April 24, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Criminal Records, Family Formation and Violence Against Women

Susan Niknami (Stockholm University)

ONLINE

Friday, April 10, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Income-Based Fines: Evaluating Rationales for Finnish Speeding Penalties

We evaluate rationales for income-based speeding fines. Such fines are famously applied in Finland, where a $250 offense for a low-income speeder can cost $100,000 for the rich. We consider four potential policy goals?ex...Read more...

Martti Kaila (University of Glasgow)

ONLINE

Friday, March 27, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Audit of God: Hometown Connections and Building Damage in the Sichuan Earthquake

This study documents how corruption can result in large-scale welfare consequences by exacerbating the damage from catastrophic events. Using an original dataset of 1,050 buildings from the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in Chi...Read more...

Yiming Cao (HKU)

ONLINE

Friday, March 13, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Understanding Criminal Record Penalties in the Labor Market

This paper studies the earnings and employment penalties associated with a criminal record. Using a large-scale dataset linking criminal justice and employer-employee wage records, we estimate two-way fixed effects m...Read more...

Yotam Shem-Tov (UCLA)

ONLINE

Friday, February 27, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Does Management Matter? Evidence from Indigent Defense in Texas

The majority of felony cases in the United States involve indigent clients represented by publicly financed attorneys. In this paper, we examine the effects of efforts to improve representation for economically disadvant...Read more...

Emily Owens (University of California, Irvine)

ONLINE

Friday, February 13, 2026 13:00 - 14:00

Does Distance from Home Matter in Prison? Effects on Visitation and Recidivism

This paper studies how the distance between prison and an incarcerated individual?s home affects their likelihood of recidivism. Leveraging a unique dataset covering more than 20,000 incarcerated individuals and over 200...Read more...

Danielle Nemschoff (University of Chicago)

ONLINE

Friday, December 5, 2025 13:00 - 14:00

The labour market effects of crime victimisation

Using a novel dataset encompassing all crime reports in Brazil and employing a matched differences-in-differences design, we find that victims of assault experience a 7-10% reduction in labor market participation, with p...Read more...

Pedro Souza (Queen Mary University of London)

ONLINE

Friday, November 21, 2025 13:00 - 14:00

The scar of political conflict: evidence from tear gas deployments in Hong Kong

This study examines how exposure to political violence reshapes market behavior by leveraging Hong Kong?s 2019-2020 protests. Exploiting local variation in tear gas deployment?the primary crowd-control weapon marking sit...Read more...

Heng "Henry" Chen (University of Hong Kong)

ONLINE

Friday, November 7, 2025 13:00 - 14:00

From friends to `family?: schools, neighborhoods, and gang recruitment

This paper examines how gang-related criminal behavior spreads through extended family and peer networks, using newly linked Swedish administrative data covering over 18,000 individuals with confirmed gang affiliation. W...Read more...

Daniel Cunha Bystrom (University of Gothenburg)

ONLINE

Friday, October 24, 2025 13:00 - 14:00

Financial incentives and public safety: the role of blood plasma donation centers in crime reduction

The United States is one of the few OECD countries to pay individuals to donate blood plasma and is the most generous in terms of remuneration. The opening of a local blood plasma center represents a positive, prospectiv...Read more...

Brendon McConnell (City St Georges, University of London)

ONLINE

Friday, October 10, 2025 13:00 - 14:00

The economic impacts of rape

We estimate the economic impacts of rape using Finnish administrative data. Victims experience a 19% decline in employment, a 26% drop in earnings, and a 13% increase in antidepressant usage compared to otherwise observa...Read more...

Abi Adams-Prassl (Northwestern University)

ONLINE

Friday, September 12, 2025 13:00 - 14:00

Custodial versus non-custodial sentences: Long-run evidence from an anticipated reform.

We study the relative impact of custodial and non-custodial sentences on later crime and labor-market outcomes in Denmark, a country where detention conditions are particularly good. To do so, we take advantage of a larg...Read more...

Camille Hemet (Paris School of Economics)

ONLINE

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 15:00 - 16:00