Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/147394
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6140
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Several theories have been offered to explain the recent declines in violent crime rates in the United States. We hypothesize that technological innovations, which improved information transmission and shortened the response time between an aggravated assault incident and treatment, reduced the cost of saving lives and caused much of the decline in homicide rates in recent decades. Using difference-in-differences and event studies, we show that improvements in emergency services (9-1-1) caused significant decreases in homicide rates. Various falsification tests support these findings.
Subjects: 
homicides
aggravated assault
response times
value of time
9-1-1
JEL: 
D00
I10
K00
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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