Economics Research Seminar: " Gangs of London: Public Housing, Bombs and Knives"
About this seminar
This seminar examines how post-war public housing design shaped gang presence and crime in London, using novel spatial data and WWII bomb damage as an exogenous source of variation.
Speaker
Our speaker is Dr Carmen Villa, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Zurich and Research Affiliate, Institute for Fiscal Studies and Rockwool Foundation Berlin
Dr Villa received her PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick in 2025. She was selected for the EALE Tour 2025, awarded a British Spanish Society scholarship in 2024, and was a Fulbright US-UK visiting scholar at the University of Chicago in 2023.
Abstract
Novel spatial data on London street gangs between 1990 and 2015 are combined with local housing characteristics to show how social housing relates to gang presence and neighbourhood crime. High-rise public housing estates built in the post-World War II era are far more likely to host gangs than areas without social housing. To address concerns that social housing was built in already high-crime areas, high-rise construction is shown to be predicted from spatial patterns of WWII bomb damage that occurred in the 1940-41 Blitz. Bomb-induced high-rise construction significantly raises gang presence and criminality, with especially high juvenile crime rates in gang areas.
Attendance
This seminar is open to current students and staff at Newcastle University. Registration is required.