Javad Shamsi

Javad Shamsi

PhD Student in Economics

London School of Economics

I am a PhD candidate in Economics at the London School of Economics and a Research Officer at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. My research interests lie in applied microeconomics. I employ a variety of methods to collect and analyze data, including web scraping, big data analytics, natural language processing, and image processing, to investigate diverse economic questions. I am currently investigating the impact of digital technology on the entrepreneurial landscape in the food industry.

My academic journey has led me through various institutions, including IFS (Research Officer), Princeton (visiting PhD student), LSE (MRes in Economics), and Sharif University (MSc in Economics, and BSc in Mechanical Engineering).

I will be on the academic job market in the 2024/25 cycle.

Interests
  • Labour Economics
  • Political Economy
Education
  • PhD in Economics, 2020-24

    London School of Economics

  • MRes in Economics, 2018-20

    London School of Economics

  • MSc in Economics, 2015-17

    Sharif University of Technology,

  • BSc in Mechanical Engineering, 2011-15

    Sharif University of Technology

CV

You can download my CV here

Research

Job Market Paper

A New Order: Digital Disruption and Democratization of Restaurant Entrepreneurship

Abstract and draft coming soon!

Other Working Papers

Understanding multi-layered sanctions: A firm-level analysis

This paper examines which types of firms are hit by multi-layered sanctions, quantifies the extent of the economic impact on the affected firms, and identifies the channels through which these effects are propagated. To this end, I use a text-based approach from computational linguistics to gauge the exposure of publicly listed Iranian firms to sanctions, validating this measure through its anticipated fluctuation over time and across industries. The findings reveal three key insights. First, Iranian firms report significant challenges due to sanctions, exceeding COVID-19 concerns by up to 20%. Second, politically-connected and non-connected firms suffer equally from sanctions; for every $1 loss inflicted on connected firms, an externality of $5 is imposed on non-connected firms, considering their economic scale. This contradicts the idea that sanctions only inflict harm on political decision-makers. Third, sanctions are hurtful; firms with higher exposure to sanctions endure greater losses in stock market value in the wake of unanticipated sanction events. Sanctions also lead to reduced sales, investment and hiring. Furthermore, the study reveals that sanctions impact firms via several mechanisms, the primary one being the limitation of access to export destinations.

Media Coverage: VoxEU Column, The Sanctions Age Podcast (YouTube, Spotify, ApplePodcast), Tejarate Farda, RouhaniHassan.com, Donya-e Eghtesad, Clingendael

Presentations: 8th Monash-Warwick-Zurich-CEPR Text-as-Data Workshop, Text-as-Data in Economics Workshop at the University of Liverpool, Political Economy, Development, and Labour seminars at LSE, UCL, TeIAS, and Princeton

Immigration and Political Realignment

This paper examines how immigration reshapes political landscapes, centring on the influx of immigrants from the EU's 2004 enlargement and its implications for the UK. I use a new variation in exposure to immigration based on migrant flows across various industries coupled with the employment structure in each region. Addressing potential concerns of endogeneity, I introduce a novel shift-share IV design, harnessing the industry-specific flow of migrants to regions outside the UK within the pre-2004 EU. The findings reveal a significant impact on support for the right-wing UK Independence Party and the Brexit Leave campaign, accompanied by a decline in Labour Party support. Moreover, the research indicates that voters' social attitudes toward immigration become more adverse in response to immigration. Political parties, particularly Conservatives, are also observed to increasingly engage with the topic of immigration in constituencies most affected by immigration, typically marked by negative rhetoric. The paper reconciles these findings by highlighting how immigration shocks entrench immigration cleavage, realigning political conflict from traditional economic lines to new cultural dimensions.

Presentations: 39th meeting of the European Economic Association, 2nd Junior Workshop on the Economics of Migration LISER (University of Luxembourg), 3rd University of Milan Junior Economists Meeting, LSE Political Economy, Development, and Labour seminars, TeIAS, Pol-Econ seminar at Princeton

Work in Progress

From Streets to Ballots: The Impact of Climate Protests on Public Awareness and Electoral Outcomes (with Azhar Hussain and Ranjana Sinha)

Labour Market Dynamics and Political Change in the Europe (with Tim Besley and Torsten Persson)

Teaching

I’ve taught various courses at LSE, consistently earning teaching evaluations well above the course, department, and LSE averages.

  • EC101 Introductory Micro (Teacher Evaluation 4.95/5), Summer 2023

  • EC202 Intermediate Macro (Teacher Evaluation 4.93/5), Summer 2023

  • EC101 Introductory Micro (Teacher Evaluation 4.6/5), Summer 2022

  • EC221 Principle of Econometrics (Teacher Evaluation 4.6/5), 2021-22

  • EC220 Introduction to Econometrics (Teacher Evaluation 4.4/5), 2020-21

  • EC100 Economics A (Teacher Evaluation 4.5/5), 2019-20

  • EC102 Economics B (Teacher Evaluation 4.8/5), Summer 2019

Contact

Talking is better with coffee.