Police Reform

How Financial Contracting Could Help the Police Force Manage Its Aims More Effectively

Hamid Mehran proposes funded deferred pay, an incentive structure to mitigate the risk and costs of police misconduct.

“Drive and Wave”: In Response to 1998 Police Reform, LAPD Officers Disengaged from Policing

A new paper documents how LAPD officers responded to two police reforms—one in 1998 and one in late 2002. It finds that...

Police Stops of Black Drivers Increase Following Trump Rallies, New Study Suggests 

A new study looks into how Trump's 2016 presidential campaign affected police behavior toward Black Americans and finds that the probability that...

Prison Labor Can Create Perverse Incentives for Incarceration and Reduce Trust in Legal Institutions

Government proponents of prison labor should be mindful of the potential for negative effects, including increased incarceration rates and citizens’ deteriorating views...

Few Bad Apples? New Study Finds That 40 Percent of Officers in a Large Police Force Are Discriminatory

A new paper seeks to examine whether police misbehavior is concentrated or diffuse by identifying whether highway patrol officers in Florida are...

What is the Connection Between Collective Bargaining and Police Officer Misconduct? Evidence from Florida

A working paper finds that after sheriffs’ deputies in Florida were allowed to unionize, violent incidents increased by 40 percent.

Should We Defund the Police? A New Capitalisn’t Reading List

In this episode of the Capitalisn't podcast, Kate and Luigi take an economist's look at the concept of defunding the police.

How to Get Police Reform Done? Use Direct Democracy

Instead of just imploring their representatives to fix things, Americans can use the tools of direct democracy to take charge and promote...

Break Up the Police

In most cities in America, it is not the police that answers to the mayors, but the mayors to the police. The...

Latest news

Mobile Internet Is Changing Employment in Developing Countries, but Not Always as Expected

Scholars and policymakers have put much faith into the prospect of internet connectivity catalyzing development in low- and middle-income countries. In new...

Biden’s Second-Best Economic Agenda

Efficiency is out and political economy is in. But what does that imply about making good policy?

The Fed and Bank Failures

Viral Acharya and Raghuram Rajan explain how quantitative easing contributed to the problems underlying the recent bank failures such as that of...

Self-Preferencing Theories Need To Account for Exploitative Abuse

Patrice Bougette, Oliver Budzinski, and Frédéric Marty argue in their research that antitrust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic must take...

Startup Acquisitions Have Undecided Effects on Innovation and Economic Growth

Startups are a major driver of innovation, but many startups are acquired by large incumbents. Do these acquisitions stifle innovation or promote...

History Shows that Voluntary ESG Standards Lead to a More Focused ESG Disclosure

In recent years, ESG reports have become more common for publicly traded companies. However, critics have found the information they provide to...

Letters that Matter: How Interest Groups Shape Financial Legislation

Members of Congress are inundated with an avalanche of correspondence on a daily basis. But what persuades them to heed the call?...