Data and Code for "A Few Bad Apples? Racial Bias in Policing"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Felipe Goncalves, University of California-Los Angeles; Steven Mello, Dartmouth College

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Deconvolution.m	text/x-matlab	3.4 KB	01/04/2021 04:26:PM
figA4.do	text/x-stata-syntax	1.7 KB	01/04/2021 04:26:PM
ll.m	text/x-matlab	1.2 KB	01/04/2021 04:26:PM

Project Description

Summary: We estimate the degree to which individual police officers practice racial discrimination. Using a bunching estimation design and data from the Florida Highway Patrol, we show that minorities are less likely to receive a discount on their speeding tickets than white drivers. Disaggregating this difference to the individual police officer, we estimate that 37% of officers practice discrimination. We then apply our officer- level discrimination measures to various policy-relevant questions in the literature. In particular, reassigning officers across locations based on their lenience can effectively reduce the aggregate disparity in treatment.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Traffic Stops

JEL Classification:
J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

Geographic Coverage: Florida

Data Type(s): administrative records data

Methodology

Data Source:

Florida Court Clerks and Comptrollers

Florida Department of Corrections

Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Florida Department of Transportation

Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Florida Highway Patrol

Internal Revenue Service

TrueCar

US Census Bureau

Integrated Public Use Microdata (IPUMS)

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-02-20]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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