October

07
2004

12:00 pm EDT - 1:30 pm EDT

Past Event

Do Police Reduce Crime?

Thursday, October 07, 2004

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT

Kresge Room
Falk Auditorium

The Brookings Institution
Washington, DC

This seminar addresses the effect of observable police presence on crime following the terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in Buenos Aires a decade ago. Following the attack, Jewish institutions were given 24-hour police protection. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the terrorist attack, Di Tella et al. find a large deterrent effect of observable police presence on crime.

Rafael Di Tella has served as a professor at Harvard Business School since July 1997. Prior to his work at Harvard, Di Tella obtained a D.Phil in Economics from Oxford University with a thesis on corruption and worked in Argentina’s Economic Ministry. Besides his work on corruption, Dr. Di Tella’s research extends to issues on the optimal welfare stateand Latin American economics regulation.

* This work has been previously published in The American Economic Review in March 2004.