Rosen, Sherwin (1938–2001)

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Mpra Paper, 2007

Biased policing against racial and ethnic minorities is an important public policy issue. Theoretical analysis and empirical results on this issue has been plagued by an assortment of problems which confront research on the nature and significance of police discrimination against social groups. This paper presents and applies a nonparametric test that is robust to a host of methodological difficulties. We theoretically and empirically contrast our non-parametric test with other tests that are prominent in the literature. Utilizing data provided by the Florida Highway Patrol, our empirical results strongly reject the null hypothesis that FHP troopers of different races do not engage in racially biased searches of stopped drivers. More particularly, there is evidence of police bias against African American male and Latino drivers by all officers and no evidence of police bias against white male drivers by any group of officers.

2008

Recently, police departments, legislators, media, and the public at large in the U.S. have increasingly been concerned about racial disparities in o‐cers’ issuing tra‐c tickets. Ascertaining the extent to which an observed disparity re∞ects racial bias is the crucial issue. First, we use a theoretical model which borrows features from the recent literature regarding racial bias in vehicle searches. In our model, motorists, picking the speed to travel at, take into account the probability of getting ticketed and the speed that the o‐cer will cite, while o‐cers maximize a beneflt function generically increasing in the speed of ticketed drivers; this beneflt function, however, is general enough to allow o‐cers to give certain drivers a break by citing them at a lower speed than they were traveling. Empirically, we exploit the existence of a massive accumulation of speeding tickets at 10 m.p.h. over the speed limit to elicit o‐cers’ discretionary behavior and leniency. Surprisingly, abo...

Working Papers, 2008

Recently, police departments, legislators, media, and the public at large in the US have increas-ingly been concerned about racial disparities in officers' issuing traffic tickets. Ascertaining the extent to which an observed disparity reflects racial bias is the crucial issue. First, we ...

IZA Institute of Labor Economics Discussion Paper Series, 2008

Law enforcement officers are allowed to exercise a significant amount of street-level discretion in a variety of ways. In this paper, we focus on a particular prominent kind of discretionary behavior by traffic officers when issuing speeding tickets, speed discounting. Officers partially forgive motorists by writing a lower speed level than the speed that officers observe. Verifying the level of speed discounting by different groups of officers and motorists and ascertaining the presence of racial disparities in this lenient policing are the main objectives of this paper. We find that minority officers, particularly African-Americans, are harsher on all motorists but even harsher on minority motorists regarding speed discounting. The minority-on-minority disparity appears to be stronger in situations involving Hispanic officers, infrequently ticketing officers, male motorists, those driving old vehicles, and minority neighborhoods.

Economic Inquiry, 2014

As the marginal suspect and propensity to commit crime are unobserved across racial categories, it is difficult to quantify racial bias with law enforcement outcomes data. We test for racial bias in driving-under-the-influence of alcohol enforcement. The assessment outcome variable, blood alcohol content (BAC), provides information about motorist's choices and allows for a more refined test for racial bias compared with other law enforcement outcome data. We find no evidence of racial bias in the relevant range where our model applies. However, we do find differences in find rates at the lowest levels of BAC, where there should be no impairment. (JEL J7, K42)

As the marginal suspect and propensity to commit crime are unobserved across racial categories, it is difficult to quantify racial bias with law enforcement outcomes data. We test for racial bias in driving-under-the-influence of alcohol enforcement. The assessment outcome variable, blood alcohol content (BAC), provides information about motorist's choices and allows for a more refined test for racial bias compared with other law enforcement outcome data. We find no evidence of racial bias in the relevant range where our model applies. However, we do find differences in find rates at the lowest levels of BAC, where there should be no impairment. (JEL J7, K42)

2011

A new meta-field of "forensic economics " has begun to emerge, uncovering evidence of hidden behavior in a variety of domains. Examples include teachers cheating on exams, road builders skimping on materials, violations of U.N. sanctions, unnecessary heart surgeries, and racial biases in employment decisions, traffic stops, auto retailing, and even sports judging. In each case, part of the contribution of economic analysis is in uncovering evidence of wrongdoing. Although research questions differ, forensic economic work shares commonalities in approaches and limitations. This article seeks to draw out the common threads, with the hope of stimulating further research across fields. 1 Dartmouth College. I am grateful first to Justin Wolfers, who worked on the initial outline of this article with me but withdrew from the project due to competing time commitments. Thanks also to Janet Currie, Stefano

Contributions in Economic Analysis & Policy, 2000

ABSTRACT Knowles, Persico, and Todd (2001) develop a model of police search and offender behavior. Their model implies that if police are unprejudiced the rate of guilt should not vary across groups. Using data from Interstate 95 in Maryland, they find equal guilt rates for African-Americans and whites and conclude that the data is not consistent with racial prejudice against African-Americans. This paper generalizes the model of Knowles, Persico, and Todd by accounting for the fact that potential offenders are frequently not observed by the police, and by including two different levels of offense severity. We show that the data is consistent with prejudice against African-American males, no prejudice, and reverse discrimination, depending on the type of equilibrium that exists. Additional analyses, based on stratification by type of vehicle and time of day, do not shed any light on the nature of the equilibrium.