Endogenous Driving Behavior in Tests of Racial Profiling in Police Traffic Stops

Jesse Kalinowski, Stephen Ross and Matthew Ross
Additional contact information
Jesse Kalinowski: Quinnipiac University

No 2017-017, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: African-American motorists may adjust their driving in response to increased scrutiny by law enforcement. We develop a model of police stop and motorist driving behavior and demonstrate that this behavior biases conventional tests of discrimination. We empirically document that minority motorists are the only group less likely to have fatal motor vehicle accidents in daylight when race is more easily observed by police, especially within states with high rates of police shootings of African-Americans. Using data from Massachusetts and Tennessee, we also find that African-Americans are the only group of stopped motorists whose speed relative to the speed limit slows in daylight. Consistent with the model prediction, these shifts in the speed distribution are concentrated at higher percentiles of the distribution. A calibration of our model indicates substantial bias in conventional tests of discrimination that rely on changes in the odds that a stopped motorist is a minority.

Keywords: police; crime; racial discrimination; racial profiling; disparate treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 I31 J7 K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-02
Note: MIP
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Kalino ... ng-veil-darkness.pdf First version, February 2017 (application/pdf)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Kalino ... veil-darkness_v2.pdf Third version, March 31, 2020 (application/pdf)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Kalino ... veil-darkness_v3.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Endogenous Driving Behavior in Tests of Racial Profiling in Police Traffic Stops (2020)
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