SEVRIN WAIGHTS
Senefelderstrasse 32 ▪ 10437 Berlin ▪ Germany
+49 (0)176 723 57816 ▪ s.g.waights@lse.ac.uk
Nationality: United Kingdom
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Urban and Spatial Economics, Economic Geography and Regional Economics
EDUCATION
10/2010 – PRESENT
PhD in Economic Geography, London School of Economics
Thesis: “Urban Housing Markets and Neighbourhood Change” (Expect to submit: 03/2014)
Supervisors: Steve Gibbons and Gabriel Ahlfeldt
10/2009 – 10/2010
MSc in Human Geography, London School of Economics (Distinction)
Dissertation: “Testing the Monocentric City Model for London”
09/2005 – 07/2009
BSc in Economics, University of Bath (2:1)
Dissertation: “Replicating New Economic Geography Using an Agent-based Model”
RESEARCH POSITIONS
07/2013 – PRESENT
Occasional Research Assistant, Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC), LSE
Project: “Predicting Prime Real Estate Locations” for Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Christian Hilber
Tasks: collected geodatasets with worldwide coverage, prepared in GIS environment
10/2013 – PRESENT
Occasional Research Assistant, Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC), LSE
Project: “Urban Economics and Urban Policy” (SERC policy book) for Max Nathan
Tasks: provided helpful comments, strengthened argument by generating map
11/2010 – 11/2013
Research Assistant, Dept. Int. Economics, Darmstadt University of Technology
Project: “Testing Urban Economic Theory Using Case of Historical Berlin” for Volker Nitsch
Tasks: created and maintained unique historical dataset, supervised student assistants,
investigated own research agenda, presented to non-technical audiences
07/2011 – 08/2013
Occasional Research Assistant, Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), LSE
Project: “Using Natural Experiments to Understand the Spatial Economy” for Daniel Sturm
Tasks: developed historical transport models, programmed network analysis (Python)
06/2011 – 06/2012
Freelance Research Assistant, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Project: “One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago” for Daniel McMillen
Tasks: developed powerful extraction method for historical land values, budgeted and
scheduled project, trained and supervised large team of student assistants
01/2012 – 05/2012
Freelance Research Assistant, LSE Enterprise
Project: “Estimating the House Price Premium for Conservation Areas” for Gabriel Ahlfeldt
Tasks: generated spatial variables, analysed conservation areas, assisted with write-up
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SEVRIN WAIGHTS
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
06/2009 – 08/2009
Economist, UK Regional Department, Cambridge Econometrics
Project: “Estimating Capital Stock of NUTS2 Regions of EU Member States” for DG Regio
Tasks: investigated methods, formulated assumptions, programmed estimation, presented
estimates and analysis at European Commission, co-authored paper in Applied Economics
07/2007 – 08/2008
Assistant Economist, UK Regional Department, Cambridge Econometrics
Project: “UK Regional Service”
Tasks: streamlined process of updating regional forecasts, analysed economy of North
West as regional consultant, trained new staff in Econometrics software (OxMetrics)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
04/2012 – 07/2012
Module 5: “City and Surroundings”, MA Historical Urbanism, Center for
Metropolitan studies, Berlin University of Technology
CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS
11/2013
PhD Seminar, Cluster of Economic Geography, LSE, London
08/2013
53st Congress of European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Palermo
05/2013
Spatial Economic Research Centre (SERC) 5th Annual Conference, LSE, London
11/2012
PhD Seminar, Cluster of Economic Geography, LSE, London
02/2012
PhD Seminar, Cluster of Economic Geography, LSE, London
11/2011
Denkstadt Series, Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin
08/2011
51st Congress of European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Barcelona
05/2011
Spatial Economic Research Centre (SERC) 3rd Annual Conference, LSE, London
05/2011
PhD Seminar, Cluster of Economic Geography, LSE, London
03/2011
Economic Geography and International Trade workshop, IFO institute, Munich
PROJECT AND GRANT PROPOSALS
2011 – 2012
Assisted Gabriel Ahlfeldt with research grant: “Cities, Space and History - A
Comparative Analysis”, LSE Research Committee Seed Fund, approx. £25,000
2011 – 2012
Assisted Gabriel Ahlfeldt with research grant: “One Hundred Years of Land Values
in Chicago”, Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, $80,000
OTHER EXPERIENCE
10/2012
Refereeing for Journal of Urban Economics
SINCE 05/2012
ONS Approved Researcher (Secure Data Service)
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SEVRIN WAIGHTS
LANGUAGES AND COMPUTER SKILLS
LANGUAGES
English (native speaker), German (good)
COMPUTER SKILLS
Stata, ArcGIS, MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), OxMetrics, Python
PUBLICATIONS
“Estimating the capital stock for the NUTS2 regions of the EU27”, joint with James Derbyshire and Ben
Gardiner (2013), Applied Economics, 45(9): 1133-1149 (link)
WORKING PAPERS
“Game of Zones: The Economics of Conservation Areas”, joint with Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Kristoffer Moeller
and Nicolai Wendland (2013), SERC Discussion Papers 0143, Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE
(link)
“Gentrification and Displacement in English Cities”, Conference Paper at the SERC 5th Annual Conference,
2013 (link)
“Do hedonic prices converge to a law of one price?”, Conference Paper at the SERC 3rd Annual Conference,
2011
WORK IN PROGRESS
"The Welfare Economics of Conservation Areas: Quality of Life vs. Housing Productivity", presented in
2013 at PhD Seminar, Cluster of Economic Geography, LSE
BLOG POSTS
“Game of Zones”, 22nd October 2013, Spatial Economic Research Centre Blog (link), and reposted, 29th
October 2013, LSE Politics and Policy Blog (link)