Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Business and Economics

Department

Economics

Committee Chair

Bryan McCannon

Committee Member

Joshua Hall

Committee Member

Kole Reddig

Committee Member

Amy Godfrey

Abstract

The first chapter examines the impact of Red Flag Laws on homicide rates and suicide rates. Red Flag Laws seek to implement gun control measures by allowing the removal of firearms from individuals who pose a danger to themselves or others. Using a two-way fixed effects (TWFE) difference-in-differences (DiD) estimations, I demonstrate a negative and plausibly causal relationship between a state implementing a Red Flag Law and homicide rates. While there is also a reduction in suicide rates, I am unable to make causal claims. This study is the first to empirically examine Red Flag Laws, with an eye towards casual inference. These effects are primarily driven by states that permit both family members and law enforcement to petition a state court for the removal of firearms.

The second chapter adds to the existing literature on capital punishment. However, I focus on state-level execution moratoriums and their impact on homicide rates. Currently, there are five states with such moratoriums: Oregon (since 2011), Colorado (since 2013; the death penalty was abolished in 2020), Washington (since 2014; the death penalty was abolished in 2018), Pennsylvania (since 2015), and California (since 2019). Using the synthetic control method (SCM) I fail to find a statistical significance on homicide rates for the states who adopt such a policy. Robustness checks and supplementary analyses were conducted to ensure the validity of the primary SCM results. Furthermore, additional analyses incorporating control variables, such as population, race, income, and unemployment rate, were performed using a two-way fixed effects (TWFE) difference-in-differences (DiD) model. The findings consistently show no statistically significant effect of the policy on homicide rates.

The third chapter is joint work with Dr. Bryan McCannon. In it, we exploit a novel Covid-19 policy where the state of California mandated a state-wide zero dollar bail for all misdemeanor and non-violent felony offenses. This policy was in affect for three months, from April 2020 through June 2020. After the state-wide mandate was lifted, individual counties were able to continue the zero dollar bail policy or revert back to pre-Covid bail schedules. We investigate whether the elimination of cash bail promotes crime. Our empirical evidence suggests that this policy had a statistical significant impact on violent crimes, specifically assaults. Property crime results tend to unreliable, depending on the specification used. We further show that it did not affect law enforcement’s clearance rate and, therefore, is likely to be a direct effect from eroding deterrence. Using a leave-one-out process, which allows us to assess how sensitive our result is to crime and policy in any one particular jurisdiction. Doing so, we find little difference in the coefficient estimate. Each of the 58 regressions produces an estimated effect that positive and statistically different from zero at the 5% level.

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