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

Jesse Kalinowski, Matthew Ross and Stephen Ross
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Jesse Kalinowski: Quinnipiac University

No 2017-03, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

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; Discrimination; Racial Profiling; Disparate Treatment; Traffic Stops (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H1 I3 J7 K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 76 pages
Date: 2017-02, Revised 2020-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Endogenous Driving Behavior in Tests of Racial Profiling in Police Traffic Stops (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2017-03

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