Work

Are U.S. Cities Underpoliced? Theory and Evidence

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: We document the extent of measurement errors in the basic data set on police used in the literature on the effect of police on crime. Analyzing medium to large U.S. cities over 1960 to 2010, we obtain measurement error-corrected estimates of the police elasticity. The magnitudes of our estimates are similar to those obtained in the quasi-experimental literature, but our approach yields much greater parameter certainty for the most costly crimes, the key parameters for welfare analysis. Our analysis suggests that U.S. cities are substantially underpoliced.

Source: The Review of Economics and Statistics

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00694

Authors: Aaron Chalfin, Justin McCrary

Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Policing Practices and Perceptions

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W2742601671

FWCI: 93.08

Cites: 78

Cited by: 262

Related to: 10