Mass shootings, employment, and housing prices: Evidence from different geographic entities

Abstract

This paper investigates the economic effects of mass shootings by adopting a granular approach. Utilizing recent advances in difference-in-differences methods, we assess the impact of these attacks on employment and housing prices at three levels of geographical disaggregation. Our findings indicate that the economic effects of mass shootings are more pronounced when census tracts are used as the spatial unit of analysis and when the incidents occur in public spaces. Furthermore, these violent events have a greater impact on employment in sectors that depend more on face-to-face interactions. While spillover effects on housing prices are observed, they diminish with distance from the affected area.

Keywords: difference-in-differences, employment, housing prices, mass shootings

JEL Classification: C21, D74, R21, R23