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Professor Olmo Silva

Professor Olmo Silva

Research Associate

Expertise: applied microeconometrics, economics of education, economics of entrepreneurship, urban economics.

Telephone:
020 7955 6036
Email:
o.silva@lse.ac.uk
Connect:
Website
CV
Links:
CEP Education and Skills
CEP Urban

Biography

Olmo Silva is a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. He joined the Centre in September 2004 (as a Research Officer) and then moved to the Geography Department of the LSE, where he is currently Associate Professor. Olmo is the Research Director of the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC-LSE) and a Research Fellow of the IZA and CESifo networks. He received his BSc and MSc in Economics from Bocconi University, Milan, and earned his Ph.D. in Economics at the European University Institute, Florence. He also spent some time visiting University College London as a Marie Curie Visiting Fellow and Harvard University as a Visiting Scholar. His research concentrates on: the economics of education; the economics of entrepreneurship; urban and real estate economics.

Publications

CEP discussion papers
Tales of the city: what do agglomeration cases tell us about agglomeration in general?

This paper considers the heterogeneous microfoundations of agglomeration economies. It studies the co-location of industries to look for evidence of labor pooling, input sharing, and knowledge spillovers. The novel contr... Read more...

Giulia Faggio, Olmo Silva and William C. Strange

15 May 2019

Journal article
The bedroom tax

Housing subsidies for low income households are a central pillar of many welfare systems, but an expensive one. This paper investigates the consequences of an unusual policy aimed at reducing the cost of these subsidies ... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Maria Sanchez-Vidal and Olmo Silva

15 December 2018

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
In brief...The bedroom tax

The ‘bedroom tax’ – a UK government policy introduced in 2013 that cut housing benefits for social tenants deemed to have a ‘spare’ bedroom – saved some public money, according to research by Steve Gibbons and colleagues... Read more...

Steve Gibbons, Maria Sanchez-Vidal and Olmo Silva

29 June 2018

CEP discussion papers
The bedroom tax

Housing subsidies for low income households are a central pillar of many welfare systems, but an expensive one. This paper investigates the consequences of an unusual policy aimed at reducing the burden of these subsidie... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Olmo Silva and Maria Sánchez-Vidal

06 April 2018

Journal article
Academies 2 - the new batch: the changing nature of academy schools in England

The English education system has undergone large-scale restructuring through the introduction of academy schools. The most salient feature of these schools is that, despite remaining part of the state sector, they operat... Read more...

Andrew Eyles, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

01 March 2018

External publications
The impact of academies on educational outcomes - The Education Policy Institute

The expansion of the academies programme has been one of the biggest changes to the English education system in a generation. 3.4 million children are now taught in either a sponsored or a converter academy. Those childr... Read more...

Jon Andrews, Natalie Perera, Andrew Eyles, Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, Stephen Machin, Matteo Sandi and Olmo Silva

01 July 2017

CEP discussion papers
What’s in a name? Expectations, heuristics and choice during a period of radical school reform

Education policy worldwide has sought to incentivize school improvement and facilitate pupil-school matching by introducing reforms that promote autonomy and choice. Understanding the way in which families form preferenc... Read more...

Marco Bertoni, Stephen Gibbons and Olmo Silva

21 April 2017

Journal article
Heterogeneous agglomeration

Many prior treatments of agglomeration explicitly or implicitly assume that all industries agglomerate for the same reasons. This paper uses U.K. establishment-level coagglomeration data to document substantial heterogen... Read more...

Giulia Faggio, Olmo Silva and William C. Strange

01 March 2017

CEP discussion papers
Academies 2: the new batch

The English education system has undergone a large restructuring programme through the introduction of academy schools. The most salient feature of these schools is that, despite remaining part of the state sector, they ... Read more...

Andrew Eyles, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

04 September 2015

SERC Discussion Papers
Neighbourhood Turnover and Teenage Attainment

Theories about neighbours’ influence on children based on social capital, cohesion and disorganisation stress the importance of neighbourhood stability. However, amongst the vast number of studies on the effect of neighb... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Olmo Silva and Felix Weinhardt

14 August 2014

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
Everybody needs good neighbours?

There are large disparities between the achievements, behaviour and aspirations of children in different neighbourhoods – but does this mean that the place where you grow up determines your later life outcomes? Steve Gib... Read more...

Steve Gibbons, Olmo Silva and Felix Weinhardt

05 February 2014

SERC Discussion Papers
Heterogeneous Agglomeration

Many prior treatments of agglomeration either explicitly or implicitly suppose that all industries agglomerate for the same reasons, with traditional Marshallian (1890) factors affecting all industries similarly. An impo... Read more...

Giulia Faggio, Olmo Silva and William C. Strange

08 January 2014

Journal article
Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuities

Existing research shows that house prices respond to local school quality as measured by average test scores. However, higher test scores could signal higher academic value-added or higher ability, more sought-after inta... Read more...

Steve Gibbons, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

01 May 2013

CEP reports
School Structure, School Autonomy and the Tail

In this paper, we survey the UK-based literature on school structures and school autonomy to identify settings in which alternative and more autonomous school arrangements can improve the educational attainments of pupil... Read more...

Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

13 March 2013

SERC Discussion Papers
Does Self-Employment Measure Entrepreneurship? Evidence from Great Britain

Research on entrepreneurship often uses information on self-employment to proxy for business creation and innovative behaviour. However, little evidence has been collected on the link between these measures. In this pape... Read more...

Giulia Faggio and Olmo Silva

22 May 2012

SERC Discussion Papers
Homeownerhip and Entrepreneurship

We study the link between homeownership and entrepreneurship by exploiting the longitudinal dimension of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and constructing a detailed monthly-spell dataset that tracks individuals... Read more...

Philippe Bracke, Christian Hilber and Olmo Silva

24 April 2012

Journal article
The good, the bad, and the average: evidence on ability peer effects in schools

We study ability peer effects in English secondary schools using data on four cohorts of students taking age-14 national tests and measuring peers' ability by prior achievements at age 11. Our identification is based on ... Read more...

Victor Lavy, Olmo Silva and Felix Weinhardt

01 April 2012

CEE discussion papers
Valuing School Quality Using Boundary Discontinuities

Existing research shows that house prices respond to local school quality as measured by average test scores. However, higher test scores could signal better quality teaching and academic value-added, or higher ability, ... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

11 January 2012

Journal article
Faith primary schools: better schools or better pupils?

We estimate the causal effect of attending a state Faith school on primary education achievement in England using administrative student-level data and implementing various strategies to control for students' selection i... Read more...

Steve Gibbons and Olmo Silva

01 July 2011

CEE discussion papers
Do Neighbours Affect Teenage Outcomes? Evidence from Neighbourhood Changes in England

In this paper, we use census data on several cohorts of secondary school students in England matched to detailed information on place of residence to investigate the effect of neighbours’ background characteristics and p... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Olmo Silva and Felix Weinhardt

01 November 2010

SERC Discussion Papers
Do Neighbours Affect Teenage Outcomes? Evidence from Neighbourhood Changes in England

In this paper, we use census data on several cohorts of secondary school students in England matched to detailed information on place of residence to investigate the effect of neighbours’ background characteristics and p... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Olmo Silva and Felix Weinhardt

01 November 2010

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
What works in primary schools?

Olmo Silva reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of increasing resources, modifying teaching methods and introducing choice and competition.... Read more...

Olmo Silva

01 June 2009

SERC Discussion Papers
Valuing School Quality Using Boundary Discontinuities

A large body of international research shows that house prices respond to local school quality as measured by average test scores. But better test scores could signal better expected academic outputs or simply reflect hi... Read more...

Steve Gibbons, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

01 March 2009

CEE discussion papers
School Quality, Child Wellbeing and Parents Satisfaction

Researchers in economics of education usually assume that parents choose schools for their high academic performance, with some support from revealed preference evidence based on local house prices. However, anecdotal ev... Read more...

Steve Gibbons and Olmo Silva

01 January 2009

Journal article
New technology in schools: is there a payoff?

Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. We exploit a cha... Read more...

Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Olmo Silva

01 July 2007

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
In brief: Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils?

Average levels of pupil achievement in religiously affiliated primary schools seem to be higher than in the secular sector. Research by Stephen Gibbons and Olmo Silva examines whether faith schools really are better or i... Read more...

Steve Gibbons and Olmo Silva

01 June 2007

CEE discussion papers
Urban Density and Pupil Attainment

We explore the association between urban density and pupil attainment using three cohorts of pupils in schooling in England. Although – as widely recognised – attainment in dense urban places is low on average, this is n... Read more...

Steve Gibbons and Olmo Silva

01 May 2007

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
The Educational Impact of Parental Choice and School Competition

A central focus of current education policy is to expand parents' choice over where their children go to school and to promote competition between schools. A long-running CEP research programme by Stephen Gibbons, Stephe... Read more...

Steve Gibbons, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

01 December 2006

CEE discussion papers
Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils?

We provide estimates of the effect of attending a Faith school on educational attainment progress during the Primary education phase in England. We argue that there are no credible instruments for Faith school attendance... Read more...

Steve Gibbons and Olmo Silva

01 November 2006

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
New Technology in Schools: is there a Payoff?

Economists have typically been sceptical that computers improve educational outcomes. But research by Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Olmo Silva finds evidence that new technology can have a positive effect on pupils'... Read more...

Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Olmo Silva

01 June 2006

CEE discussion papers
Competition, Choice and Pupil Achievement

Read more...

Steve Gibbons, Steve Gibbons, Stephen Machin and Olmo Silva

01 January 2006

CEE discussion papers
New Technology in Schools: Is There a Payoff?

Read more...

Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Olmo Silva

01 January 2006

CEP discussion papers
Entrepreneurship: Can the Jack-of-All-Trades Attitude be Aquired?

Entrepreneurs are believed to be the ultimate engine of modern economic systems. Yet, the study of entrepreneurship suffers from the lack of consensus on the most crucial question: what makes an entrepreneur? A recent th... Read more...

Olmo Silva

01 December 2004

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