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Code for: Measuring Racial Discrimination in Bail Decisions

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) David Arnold, University of California, San Diego; Will Dobbie, Harvard University. Kennedy School of Government.; Peter Hull, Brown University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
replication			05/27/2022 06:26:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	82.7 KB	05/27/2022 02:25:PM

Project Citation:

Arnold, David, Dobbie, Will , and Hull, Peter . Code for: Measuring Racial Discrimination in Bail Decisions. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-08-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E167081V1

Project Description

Summary: We develop new quasi-experimental tools to measure disparate impact, regardless of its source, in the context of bail decisions. We show that omitted variables bias in pretrial release rate comparisons can be purged by using the quasi-random assignment of judges to estimate average pretrial misconduct risk by race. We find that two-thirds of the release rate disparity between white and Black defendants in New York City is due to the disparate impact of release decisions. We then develop a hierarchical marginal treatment effect model to study the drivers of disparate impact, finding evidence of both racial bias and statistical discrimination.

These materials provide the code to estimate the results in the paper.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Disparate impact; racial discrimination ; pretrial detention; quasi-experimental; hierarchical marginal treatment effects

JEL Classification:
      C26 Single Equation Models: Single Variables: Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
      K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

Geographic Coverage: New York City

Time Period(s): 11/2008 – 11/2013

Universe: Universe of arraignments in New York City between November 1, 2008 to November 1, 2013

Data Type(s): administrative records data

Methodology

Data Source: New York City Division of Criminal Justice

Unit(s) of Observation: arraignment-level

Geographic Unit: borough within New York City

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V2 [2022-09-30]

V1 [2022-08-23]

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