Bolstering community ties and its effect on crime: Evidence from a quasi-random experiment Magdalena Dom´ınguez and Daniel Montolio∗ Work in progress - Do not cite without permission This version: February 2019 Abstract In this paper we study the effect of bolstering community ties on local crime rates. To do so, we take advantage of the quasi-random nature of the implementation of a community health policy in the city of Barcelona. Salut als Barris (BSaB) is a policy that through community-based initiatives and empowerment of citizenship aims at improving health outcomes and reducing inequalities of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Based on economic and sociological literature it is also arguable that it may affect other relevant variables for overall welfare, such as crime rates. In order to test such a hypothesis, we use monthly data at the neighborhood level and a staggered Differences-in-Differences approach. Overall we find that BSaB highly reduces crimes related to non-cognitive features as well as those where there is a very close personal link (labeled as home crimes), with responses ranging from 9% to 18%. Additionally, female victimization rates drop for all age groups as well as the offense rates of younger cohorts. We argue that such outcomes are due to stronger community ties. Such results provide evidence in favor of non-traditional crime preventing policies. Keywords: crime; community action; differences-in-differences. JEL codes: C23, I18, I28, J18. ∗Dept. of Economics, University of Barcelona and IEB:
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[email protected] We are grateful to Elia Diez and Maribel Pasarin at the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) and IGOP researchers Raquel Gallego and Ernesto Morales at Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) for their insightful comments on the program.