Would Eliminating Racial Disparities in Motor Vehicle Searches have Efficiency Costs?

IF 11.1 1区 经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS Quarterly Journal of Economics Pub Date : 2021-05-21 DOI:10.1093/QJE/QJAB018
B. Feigenberg, Conrad Miller
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引用次数: 19

Abstract

During traffic stops, police search black and Hispanic motorists more than twice as often as white motorists, yet those searches are no more likely to yield contraband. We ask whether equalizing search rates by motorist race would reduce contraband yield. We use unique administrative data from Texas to isolate variation in search behavior across and within highway patrol troopers and find that search rates are unrelated to the proportion of searches that yield contraband. We find that troopers can equalize search rates across racial groups, maintain the status quo search rate, and increase contraband yield. Troopers appear to be limited in their ability to discern between motorists that are more or less likely to carry contraband. JEL Codes: J15, K42. ∗We thank the editors, Larry Katz and Stefanie Stantcheva, five anonymous referees, Ian Ayres, Felipe Goncalves, Peter Hull, Patrick Kline, Jonathan Leonard, David Levine, Dan O’Flaherty, Steven Rivkin, Evan Rose, Yotam Shem-Tov, Chris Walters, and seminar participants at USC, University of Illinois, Chicago, the Online Economics of Crime seminar, the Online Economics of Racism seminar, NBER Summer Institute, Yale SOM, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT for helpful comments. We thank researchers at the Stanford Open Policing Project for providing data on Texas Highway Patrol stops. We thank the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at Haas for providing computing resources.
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消除机动车搜索中的种族差异会带来效率成本吗?
在交通堵塞期间,警察搜查黑人和西班牙裔司机的频率是白人司机的两倍多,但这些搜查不太可能产生违禁品。我们想知道,按驾车者种族平均搜索率是否会降低违禁品产量。我们使用来自得克萨斯州的独特行政数据来隔离高速公路巡逻队内部和内部搜查行为的差异,发现搜查率与产生违禁品的搜查比例无关。我们发现,骑警可以使不同种族的搜查率相等,维持现状的搜查率,并增加违禁品的产量。士兵们辨别或多或少可能携带违禁品的司机的能力似乎有限。JEL代码:J15、K42.*我们感谢编辑Larry Katz和Stefanie Stantcheva,五位匿名裁判Ian Ayres、Felipe Goncalves、Peter Hull、Patrick Kline、Jonathan Leonard、David Levine、Dan O’Flaherty、Steven Rivkin、Evan Rose、Yotam Shem Tov、Chris Walters,NBER Summer Institute、Yale SOM、Harvard、Stanford和MIT提供有用的评论。我们感谢斯坦福开放警务项目的研究人员提供了德克萨斯州公路巡逻站的数据。我们感谢哈斯费雪房地产和城市经济中心提供的计算资源。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
24.20
自引率
2.20%
发文量
42
期刊介绍: The Quarterly Journal of Economics stands as the oldest professional journal of economics in the English language. Published under the editorial guidance of Harvard University's Department of Economics, it comprehensively covers all aspects of the field. Esteemed by professional and academic economists as well as students worldwide, QJE holds unparalleled value in the economic discourse.
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