Kilian Heilmann
University of Southern California
Dornsife Institute for New Economic Thinking
3620 South Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90089
USA
E-Mail: 
Institutional Affiliation: USC
Information about this author at RePEc
NBER Working Papers and Publications
| June 2019 | The Urban Crime and Heat Gradient in High and Low Poverty Areas
with Matthew E. Kahn: w25961
We use spatially disaggregated daily crime data for the City of Los Angeles to measure the impact of heat and pollution on crime and to study how this relationship varies across the city. On average, overall crime increases by 2.2% and violent crime by 5.7% on days with maximum daily temperatures above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.4° C) compared to days below that threshold. The heat-crime relationship is more pronounced in low-income neighborhoods. This suggests that heat shocks can increase spatial urban quality of life differences through their effect on crime. We use other administrative data and find some evidence that policing intensity declines on extremely hot days. These findings highlight that the quality of urban governance during times of extreme stress may be an important policy ... |
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