Valuing Proactive Policing: A Hedonic Analysis of Stop & Frisk's Amenity Value

33 Pages Posted: 27 Nov 2015 Last revised: 9 Mar 2016

See all articles by Matthew Friedman

Matthew Friedman

New York University (NYU) - Brennan Center for Justice; University of Wisconsin - Madison

Date Written: August 14, 2015

Abstract

This paper measures the value households place on street-level intensive policing practices. It utilizes a large, spatially detailed data set that includes more than one hundred thousand real property sales and four million police-citizen encounters in New York City from 2006-2012. A hedonic analysis of this data shows that the New York Police Department's practice of Stop, Question & Frisk policing was likely seen as a neighborhood dis-amenity by home buyers. Using finely partitioned geographical areas to control for variation in omitted variables and precise spatial statistics describing location relative to surrounding amenities and dis-amenities, I find that properties exposed to more intense Stop & Frisk activity sold for significantly lower prices. In a novel application, this paper shows one way in which housing prices can be used to inform administrative policy related to the provision of public services.

Keywords: Housing Values, Policing, Local Amenity, Public Goods

JEL Classification: K42, R21

Suggested Citation

Friedman, Matthew and Friedman, Matthew, Valuing Proactive Policing: A Hedonic Analysis of Stop & Frisk's Amenity Value (August 14, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2695584 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2695584

Matthew Friedman (Contact Author)

University of Wisconsin - Madison ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://https://econ.wisc.edu/staff/friedman-matt/

New York University (NYU) - Brennan Center for Justice ( email )

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