Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack
利用1994年布宜诺斯艾利斯犹太中心遭恐怖袭击后警力被外生分配到犹太机构这一事件，发现可见警察对汽车盗窃有显著的局部威慑效应。
An important challenge in the crime literature is to isolate causal effects of police on crime. Following a terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, all Jewish institutions received police protection. Thus, this hideous event induced a geographical allocation of police forces that can be presumed exogenous in a crime regression. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the attack, we find a large deterrent effect of observable police on crime. The effect is local, with no appreciable impact outside the narrow area in which the police are deployed.