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AER - Previous Issues
 AER - March 2004

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American Economic Review

Vol. 94, No. 1, March 2004

Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack
Rafael Di Tella and Ernesto Schargrodsky

Article Citation
Di Tella, Rafael, and Ernesto Schargrodsky. 2004. "Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack." American Economic Review, 94(1): 115–133.
DOI:10.1257/000282804322970733

Abstract
An important challenge in the crime literature is to isolate causal effects of police on crime. Following a terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, all Jewish institutions received police protection. Thus, this hideous event induced a geographical allocation of police forces that can be presumed exogenous in a crime regression. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the attack, we find a large deterrent effect of observable police on crime. The effect is local, with no appreciable impact outside the narrow area in which the police are deployed.

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Authors
Di Tella, Rafael
Schargrodsky, Ernesto