Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay

Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay

The Department of Economics
Professor of Economics

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6658
Fax
+44 (0)121 414 7377
Email
s.bandyopadhyay@bham.ac.uk
Address
Department of Economics
University of Birmingham
JG Smith Building
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Siddhartha is an internationally recognised economist in the field of political economy and public policy. He is the recipient of the Duncan Black prize awarded by the Public Choice Society for his work on the electoral incentives of prosecutors with Bryan McCannon. His work on political coalitions has been published in internationally leading journals and has been widely cited by leading scholars in the field. His papers are on the reading list of a number of courses in political economy in reputed universities. He has a particular interest in the economics of crime and economic evaluation of policy. His research interests in this area includes game theoretic modelling of criminal behaviour, econometric (statistical) analysis of factors determining crime, cost benefit analysis of alternate interventions, and the impact of initiatives such as citizen reporting. He has published several papers in reputed journals in this area as well and has been cited in both academic papers as well as policy reports, including the Official National Statistics. He is well versed in the methodological tools required to do analysis of the economic efficiency of various interventions and developed a course at the PG level in this area. He has also given short training sessions on economic evaluation to police and other practitioners.

His work on crime has been featured widely in the media and he has been interviewed by the Economist. He has links with think tanks such as Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and CIVITAS. Along with regularly speaking in academic seminars, he also participates in high profile public engagement activities such as addressing a panel discussion organised by the Criminal Justice Alliance on ‘Why crime rates are falling’ chaired by Mark Eaton.

Siddhartha is the lead economist on a number of externally funded projects that includes the Police Knowledge Fund (jointly funded by HEFCE and the Home office via the College of Policing) and another funded by Norfolk and Suffolk constabulary (see Recent Grants under Research). He leads the policing theme in the cluster on Accountability and Governance. He is the director of the newly formed Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing.

Qualifications

B.Sc (Calcutta)
M.Sc (Delhi)
Ph.D (Pennsylvania)

Biography

Teaching

Economic Policy and Political Economy, Development Policy. Microeconomics

Postgraduate supervision

Current supervision:

Juliana Pinto, started 2017, “Essays in Inequality, Crime and Education”, Primary Supervisor,

Joht Chandan, started 2016, “Essays in Adverse Childhood Experiences”, co-supervisor

Ariana Matsa, started 2014, “Essays in Cyber Crime and Security”, Primary Supervisor

Juste Abramovaite, started September 2012, “Topics in Immigration and Crime”, Primary Supervisor

Submitted:

Aixa Garcia Ramos, started September 2014, “Essays in the Understanding of Violent Criminal Behaviour”, Co-supervisor

Successful completion:

Humera Khan, (awarded , 2017), “Experimental Analyses of Conflict Reducing Mechanisms”, Primary Supervisor

Sofia Amaral (awarded 2015), “Essays on the Economics of Gender Based Violence in India”, Primary Supervisor, Post-doctoral position at the University of Essex from January 2016

Masum Emran (awarded, October 2012), “Essays on Co-Residing Decision, Public Education Expenditure, Income Inequality and Education Policies” , Assistant Professor, Okanagan College, Canada)

Katharine Inglis, “Essays in Sentencing Policy and Evidence Based Policing”, Primary Supervisor,

Neha Prashar, “An Analysis of Impact of Affirmative Action Policies on Education and Employment”, Co-supervisor

Visanu Vongsinsirikul (awarded 2010), “Understanding the Impact of Gambling with Special Reference to Thailand”, Lecturer in Economics, Dhurakij Pundit University, Thailand

Lu Han (awarded 2010), “Economic Analyses of Crime in England and Wales”, Research Fellow in Health Economics in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York

Tong Zhang, “Essays in Political Regime and Conflict”, Primary Supervisor

J. Abramovaite, S. Bandyopadhyay, S. Bhattacharya and N.Cowen, Alternatives to custody: evidence from police force areas in England and Wales, forthcoming, British Journal of Criminology

Research

Research Interests:

Applied micro theory especially political economy, public choice and development issues

Current projects:

  • Extremism as a signal of quality (with Manaswini Bhalla, Kalyan Chatterjee and Jaideep Roy)
  • Prosecutor election and case backlogs (with Bryan McCannon)

Grants

  • 2017-18, PI, Evaluation of New Chances project, £19,000  funded by West Midlands Police
  • 2017, PI Evaluation of LOCATE project, £29,000, funded by West Midlands Police
  • 2016-18, Co-I Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Data Retention Project, 34,106, funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration Fund and the National Police Chiefs Council, 01.07.16-31.12.174,106
  • 2016, Co-I RASSO evaluation, 43,500  funded by College of Policing
  • Co-I (lead from UOB), College of Policing, Police Knowledge Fund, Better Policing Collaborative, 2015-17, £1,110,691
  • PI, ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant, £9,983 January 31, 2015
  • Co-investigator (lead from UOB), Emergency Collaboration Services, £74,019.20, December, 2014
  • Co-investigator (co-lead from UOB), Norfolk and Suffolk constabulary on Research, Development and Training in Evidence Based Policing, December 2014-December 2017 
  • PI Evaluation of a community situated domestic violence programme, funded by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, £37, 997.10, 2014-15. (UOB share 37,997.10,)
  • Co-applicant Innovation and Capacity Building Fund, College of Policing, £49, 800, 2013-14 (co-led the bid from Birmingham) UOB share 15,000,

Other activities

Director of Knowledge Transfer

Publications

J. Abramovaite, S. Bandyopadhyay, S. Bhattacharya and N.Cowen, Alternatives to custody: evidence from police force areas in England and Wales, forthcoming, British Journal of Criminology

S. Bandyopadhyay and B. McCannon (2017) Flying Blind: Voter Information and Prosecutor Behavior: A Comment on Ronald Wright's "Prosecutor Institutions and Incentives" Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 18(3), 101-4 

S. Bandyopadhyay, M. Bhalla, K. Chatterjee and J. Roy (2017) Strategic Dissent in a Hotelling Downs Model with Sequential Entry and Private Information, Research in Economics, 65(4), 319-331

A. Bagchi and S. Bandyopadhyay (2016) A Model of Workplace Deviance and Recession, B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics (contributions tier) 16(1), 47-81

S. Bandyopadhyay and B. McCannon (2015) Prosecutorial Retention: Signaling by Trial, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 17(2), 219-256

S. Bandyopadhyay, S. Bhattacharya and R.Sensarma, 2015 Crime in England and Wales: A Quantile Regression Analysis, Economics Bulletin 35 (1), A 71

J. Abramovaite, S. Bandyopadhyay and L. Dixon, 2015, The Dynamics of Intergenerational  family Abuse: A focus on violence and abuse in intimate relationships, forthcoming in the Special Issue on Violence and Discrimination against Women, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 27(2), 160-174

S. Amaral, S. Bandyopadhyay and R.Sensarma, 2015, The impact of guaranteed employment on crimes against women, forthcoming in the Special Issue on Violence and Discrimination against Women, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 27(2), 199-218

S. Amaral, S. Bandyopadhyay, S. Bhattacharya and R. Sensarma, 2014, Crime across conflict and non-conflict states in India, Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 9(1) 46-56

S.Bandyopadhyay and A. Mukherjee, 2014, Research Joint Venture with Entry, Manchester School, 82(1), 52-70.

S. Bandyopadhyay and B. McCannon, 2014, The Effect of the Election of Prosecutors on Criminal Trials, Public Choice, 161 (1-2), 141-156.

S.Bandyopadhyay and B.McCannon, 2013 Re-Election Concerns and the failure of Plea Bargaining, Theoretical Economics Letters, 3(5), 40-44

L. Han, S.Bandyopadhyay, and S.Bhattacharya, 2013 Determinants of Violent and Property Crimes in England: A Panel Data Analysis, Applied Economics, 45(34), 4820-30

S.Bandyopadhyay, 2013, Crime Policy in an Era of Austerity, Police Journal, 86(2), 102-115

S.Bandyopadhyay, 2012, Market Thickness, Prices and Honesty :A Quality Demand Trap, Mathematical Social Sciences, 65(1), 52-59

S.Bandyopadhyay and K.Chatterjee, 2012 Models of Coalition Formation in Multilateral Negotiation, The Oxford handbook of Economic Conflict Resolution

S Bandyopadhyay, K Chatterjee, T Sjostrom. 2011. "Pre-Electoral Coalitions and Post-Election Bargaining", Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 6(1), pp 1-53.

S Bandyopadhyay, K Chatterjee. 2010. "Crime Reporting: Profiling and Neighbourhood Observation"The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics: Vol. 10: Iss. 1(Advances). Article 7

S Bandyopadhyay, M Oak. 2008. "Coalition Governments in a Model of Parliamentary Democracy", European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 554-56.

S Bandyopadhyay, K Chatterjee. 2006. "Coalition Theory and its Applications: A Survey", Economic Journal, 116, 509, F136-F155.

S Bandyopadhyay, M Oak, 2010. "Conflict and Leadership: Why is There a Hawkish Drift in Politics?", Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series, University of Birmingham.

Expertise

Siddhartha is an expert on political economy and public policy. He is an experienced media commentator on a number of issues in public policy but in particular on crime policy and the changes in governance of policing. He also welcomes media enquiries on issues related to electoral systems and coalition governments.

Expertise

Siddhartha is an expert on political coalitions, economics of crime and policing and policy evaluations.

  • Has used game theory to analyse the nature of  pre and post electoral political coalitions
  • Has modelled and empirically analysed the determinants of criminal behaviour and how it is modified by policing
  • Is an expert at quantitative evaluation and has led several evaluations using mixed methods

Policy experience

Siddhartha regularly provides analysis on policing and criminal justice, advises police forces and wider criminal justice agencies, and also writes regularly for non academic audiences, including in the GARDA review.