IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/brikps/7731.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pollution or Crime: The Effect of Driving Restrictions on Criminal Activity

Author

Listed:
  • Carrillo, Paul E.
  • López, Andrea
  • Malik, Arun

Abstract

Driving restriction programs have been implemented in many cities around the world to alleviate pollution and congestion problems. Enforcement of such programs is costly and can potentially displace policing resources used for crime prevention and crime detection. Hence, driving restrictions may increase crime. To test this hypothesis, this paper exploits both temporal and spatial variation in the implementation of Quito, Ecuador's Pico y Placa program and evaluates its effect on crime. Both difference-in-difference and spatial regression discontinuity estimates provide credible evidence that driving restrictions can increase crime rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Carrillo, Paul E. & López, Andrea & Malik, Arun, 2016. "Pollution or Crime: The Effect of Driving Restrictions on Criminal Activity," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7731, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:7731
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Pollution-or-Crime-The-Effect-of-Driving-Restrictions-on-Criminal-Activity.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas W. Davis, 2008. "The Effect of Driving Restrictions on Air Quality in Mexico City," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(1), pages 38-81, February.
    2. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin & Robert Witt, 2011. "Panic on the Streets of London: Police, Crime, and the July 2005 Terror Attacks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2157-2181, August.
    3. Chen, Yuyu & Jin, Ginger Zhe & Kumar, Naresh & Shi, Guang, 2013. "The promise of Beijing: Evaluating the impact of the 2008 Olympic Games on air quality," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 424-443.
    4. Olivier Marie, 2016. "Police and thieves in the stadium: measuring the (multiple) effects of football matches on crime," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(1), pages 273-292, January.
    5. Gould, Eric D. & Stecklov, Guy, 2009. "Terror and the costs of crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1175-1188, December.
    6. David E. Kalist & Daniel Y. Lee, 2016. "The National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(8), pages 863-882, December.
    7. Mikael Priks, 2015. "The Effects of Surveillance Cameras on Crime: Evidence from the Stockholm Subway," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(588), pages 289-305, November.
    8. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Viard, V. Brian & Fu, Shihe, 2015. "The effect of Beijing's driving restrictions on pollution and economic activity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 98-115.
    10. Eskeland, Gunnar S & Feyzioglu, Tarhan, 1997. "Rationing Can Backfire: The "Day without a Car" in Mexico City," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(3), pages 383-408, September.
    11. Paul E. Carrillo & Arun S. Malik & Yiseon Yoo, 2016. "Driving restrictions that work? Quito's Pico y Placa Program," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1536-1568, November.
    12. Gallego, Francisco & Montero, Juan-Pablo & Salas, Christian, 2013. "The effect of transport policies on car use: A bundling model with applications," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 85-97.
    13. Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, 2013. "Deterrence and Geographical Externalities in Auto Theft," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 92-110, October.
    14. Dean Yang, 2008. "Can Enforcement Backfire? Crime Displacement in the Context of Customs Reform in the Philippines," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 1-14, February.
    15. Henrik J. Kleven & Mazhar Waseem, 2013. "Using Notches to Uncover Optimization Frictions and Structural Elasticities: Theory and Evidence from Pakistan," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 669-723.
    16. Klick, Jonathan & Tabarrok, Alexander, 2005. "Using Terror Alert Levels to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 267-279, April.
    17. Dina Pomeranz, 2015. "No Taxation without Information: Deterrence and Self-Enforcement in the Value Added Tax," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(8), pages 2539-2569, August.
    18. Paul Carrillo & Dina Pomeranz & Monica Singhal, 2017. "Dodging the Taxman: Firm Misreporting and Limits to Tax Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 144-164, April.
    19. Benson, Bruce L. & Rasmussen, David W. & Kim, Iljoong, 1998. "Deterrence and Public Policy: Trade-Offs in the Allocation of Police Resources," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 77-100, March.
    20. C. Fritz Foley, 2011. "Welfare Payments and Crime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 97-112, February.
    21. de Grange, Louis & Troncoso, Rodrigo, 2011. "Impacts of vehicle restrictions on urban transport flows: The case of Santiago, Chile," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 862-869, November.
    22. Mikael Priks, 2009. "The Effect of Surveillance Cameras on Crime: Evidence from the Stockholm Subway," CESifo Working Paper Series 2905, CESifo.
    23. Bruce L. Benson & David W. Rasmussen, 1991. "Relationship Between Illicit Drug Enforcement Policy And Property Crimes," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 9(4), pages 106-115, October.
    24. Gallego, Francisco & Montero, Juan-Pablo & Salas, Christian, 2013. "The effect of transport policies on car use: Evidence from Latin American cities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 47-62.
    25. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    26. Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia & Zhang, Wei & Umanskaya, Victoria I., 2011. "The Effects of Driving Restrictions on Air Quality: São Paulo, Bogotá, Beijing, and Tianjin," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103381, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    27. Nicky J. Welton & Howard H. Z. Thom, 2015. "Value of Information," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 35(5), pages 564-566, July.
    28. Bonilla,Jorge A., 2016. "The more stringent, the better ? rationing car use in Bogota with moderate and drastic restrictions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7846, The World Bank.
    29. Rafael Di Tella & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2004. "Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 115-133, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salgado, Edgar & Mitnik, Oscar A., 2021. "Spatial and Time Spillovers of Driving Restrictions: Causal Evidence from Limas Pico y Placa Policy," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11818, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Suchi Kapoor Malhotra & Howard White & Nina Ashley O. Dela Cruz & Ashrita Saran & John Eyers & Denny John & Ella Beveridge & Nina Blöndal, 2021. "Studies of the effectiveness of transport sector interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), December.
    3. Han, Qing & Liu, Ying & Lu, Zilong, 2020. "Temporary driving restrictions, air pollution, and contemporaneous health: Evidence from China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul E. Carrillo & Andrea Lopez & Arun Malik, 2016. "Pollution or Crime: The Effect of Driving Restrictions on Criminal Activity," Working Papers 2016-31, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    2. Salgado, Edgar & Mitnik, Oscar A., 2021. "Spatial and Time Spillovers of Driving Restrictions: Causal Evidence from Lima's Pico Y Placa Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 14932, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Rivera, Nathaly M., 2017. "The Effectiveness of Temporary Driving Restrictions: Evidence from Air Pollution, Vehicle Flows, and Mass-Transit Users in Santiago," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259182, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Rivera, Nathaly M., 2021. "Air quality warnings and temporary driving bans: Evidence from air pollution, car trips, and mass-transit ridership in Santiago," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    5. Sun, Chuanwang & Xu, Shuhua & Yang, Mian & Gong, Xu, 2022. "Urban traffic regulation and air pollution: A case study of urban motor vehicle restriction policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    6. Rhiannon Jerch & Panle Jia Barwick & Shanjun Li & Jing Wu, 2020. "Road Rationing Policies and Housing Markets," DETU Working Papers 2004, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    7. Christophe Bellégo & Joeffrey Drouard, 2019. "Does It Pay to Fight Crime? Evidence From the Pacification of Slums in Rio de Janeiro," Working Papers 2019-08, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    8. Paul E. Carrillo & Arun S. Malik & Yiseon Yoo, 2016. "Driving restrictions that work? Quito's Pico y Placa Program," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1536-1568, November.
    9. Zhang, Wei & Lin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia & Umanskaya, Victoria I., 2017. "The effects of license plate-based driving restrictions on air quality: Theory and empirical evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 181-220.
    10. Amanda Ross & Anne Walker, 2014. "Low Priority Laws and the Allocation of Police Resources," Working Papers 14-06, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    11. Amanda Ross & Anne Walker, 2017. "The Impact Of Low-Priority Laws On Criminal Activity: Evidence From California," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(2), pages 239-252, April.
    12. Hua Ma & Guizhen He, 2016. "Effects of the Post-Olympics Driving Restrictions on Air Quality in Beijing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, September.
    13. Gu, Yizhen & Deakin, Elizabeth & Long, Ying, 2017. "The effects of driving restrictions on travel behavior evidence from Beijing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 106-122.
    14. repec:lpe:wpaper:201829 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Han, Qing & Liu, Ying & Lu, Zilong, 2020. "Temporary driving restrictions, air pollution, and contemporaneous health: Evidence from China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. Tom Kirchmaier & Stephen Machin & Matteo Sandi & Robert Witt, 2020. "Prices, Policing and Policy: The Dynamics of Crime Booms and Busts," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 1040-1077.
    17. Blesse, Sebastian & Diegmann, André, 2022. "The place-based effects of police stations on crime: Evidence from station closures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    18. Ater, Itai & Givati, Yehonatan & Rigbi, Oren, 2014. "Organizational structure, police activity and crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 62-71.
    19. Soto, Jose J. & Macea, Luis F. & Cantillo, Victor, 2023. "Analysing a license plate-based vehicle restriction policy with optional exemption charge: The case in Cali, Colombia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    20. Blackman, Allen & Qin, Ping & Yang, Jun, 2020. "How costly are driving restrictions? Contingent valuation evidence from Beijing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    21. Emiliano Tealde, 2022. "The unequal impact of natural light on crime," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 893-934, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    pollution prevention; air pollution; policing resources; criminal activity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C20 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - General
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:7731. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.