This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. ASSA Annual Meeting
  3. 2021
  4. Preliminary Program
  5. Violence and the Media
« Back to Results

Violence and the Media

Paper Session

Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

Hosted By: Peace Science Society International & American Economic Association
  • Chair: Khusrav Gaibulloev, American University-Sharjah

Not All School Shootings are the Same and the Differences Matter

Phillip Levine
,
Wellesley College
Robin McKnight
,
Wellesley College

Abstract

This paper examines student exposure to school shootings in the United States since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. We analyze shootings that occurred during school hours on a school day and resulted in a death. These shootings are likely to be uniformly reported and have a greater potential to cause harm – either directly or indirectly – to enrolled students. We measure the number and characteristics of children who were exposed to them, along with measures of the economic and social environment in which these shootings occur. We distinguish between indiscriminate shootings, suicides, personal attacks and crime-related shootings. The primary finding of our analysis is the importance of separating these types of shootings. Indiscriminate shootings and suicides more commonly affect white students, schools in more rural locations, and those in locations where incomes are higher. The opposite geographic and socioeconomic patterns are apparent for personal attacks and crime-related shootings. Analyses that ignore these distinctions or focus on a particular type may provide a misleading.

Local Exposure to School Shootings and Youth Antidepressant Use

Maya Rossin-Slater
,
Stanford University
Molly Schnell
,
Northwestern University
Hannes Schwandt
,
Northwestern University
Sam Trejo
,
Stanford University
Lindsey Uniat
,
Yale University

Abstract

While over 240,000 American students experienced a school shooting in the last two decades, little is known about the impacts of these events on the mental health of surviving youth. Using large-scale prescription data from 2006 to 2015, we examine the effects of 44 school shootings on youth antidepressant use in a difference-in-difference framework. We find that local exposure to fatal school shootings increases youth antidepressant use by 21.4 percent in the following two years. These effects are smaller in areas with a higher density of mental health providers who focus on behavioral, rather than pharmacological, interventions.

The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy

Michael Luca
,
Harvard Business School
Deepak K. Malhotra
,
Harvard Business School
Christopher Poliquin
,
University of California-Los Angeles

Abstract

There have been dozens of high-profile mass shootings in recent decades. This paper presents three main findings about the impact of mass shootings on gun policy. First, mass shootings evoke large policy responses. A single mass shooting leads to a 15% increase in the number of firearm bills introduced within a state in the year after a mass shooting. This effect increases with the extent of media coverage. Second, mass shootings account for a small portion of all gun deaths, but have an outsized influence relative to other homicides. Third, when looking at bills that were actually enacted into law, the impact of mass shootings depends on the party in power. The annual number of laws that loosen gun restrictions doubles in the year following a mass shooting in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. We find no significant effect of mass shootings on laws enacted when there is a Democrat-controlled legislature, nor do we find a significant effect of mass shootings on the enactment of laws that tighten gun restrictions.
Discussant(s)
Solomon W. Polachek
,
State University of New York-Binghamton
Khusrav Gaibulloev
,
American University-Sharjah
Phanindra V. Wunnava
,
Middlebury College and IZA
JEL Classifications
  • F5 - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy
  • H4 - Publicly Provided Goods