Do Police Reduce Crime?

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.