讲座题目：Fines, Fees, and Policing for Profit: Evidence from Policy Reforms in Missouri（罚款、收费与创收执法：基于密苏里州政策改革的证据）

主讲人：Nathan Schiff    上海财经大学经济学院

讲座时间：2024年6月20日15:30

讲座地点：学院440

讲座内容摘要：

Police departments issue fines for minor public safety violations, such as traffic tickets for speeding, to deter unlawful behavior. However, these fines can also generate significant revenue for the local government, raising the concern that policing is being used for revenue generation rather than public safety, a practice known as “policing for profit.” This concern is particularly salient in the U.S., where many small municipalities operate their own police departments and courts, which charge fees for handling each case. In this paper, we study the issue of policing and revenue generation in the state of Missouri, before and after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. This event, and the resulting investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, brought widespread attention to the role of revenue generation in both policing and municipal court practices. Moreover, the DOJ report suggested that these practices disproportionately harmed Black residents. Subsequently, Missouri implemented several reforms to discourage “policing for profit.” We use detailed data on municipal finances, policing, and municipal court actions, including individual level case data, to evaluate the effects of these reforms. In particular, we study the impact on the overall level of policing activity, police actions by race of resident, and local government revenues. Our study aims to explain which reforms were most effective and what underlying mechanisms led to the documented responses in policing.

警察部门通常会对轻度违反社会治安的行为处以罚款，以威慑违法行为，如超速罚单。但这些罚款也可以给地方政府带来可观的收入，从而公众会关注执法是否是为了财政收入而不是社会治安，即“执法创收”。美国很多小城镇运营自己的警察局和法庭，针对每个案件收费。本文研究2014年8月发生在密苏里州 Ferguson县警察执法时的发生的特殊事件前后密苏里州的警察执法与创收的问题。该事件以及随后导致的美国司法部的调查引起了对市政警察与法院执法过程中的创收问题的广泛关注。由此密苏里州采取了几项改革来弱化执法创收。本文利用市政财政、警察执法、法庭审理以及个人层面的案例等详细数据来评估这些改革的效果，尤其关注对总的警察执法活动、针对不同族裔群体的执法活动以及地方政府收入的影响。本研究力图解释哪种改革最有效果以及其背后的机制是什么。

主讲人学术简介：

Nathan Schiff，2010年获美国布朗大学经济学博士学位，现为上海财经大学经济学院长聘副教授。研究领域包括城市经济学、产业组织和公共经济学，研究重点之一是地理如何影响竞争和市场结构。研究论文发表在 Journal of Political Economy、American Economic Journal: Economic Policy、Journal of Urban Economics以及Journal of Economic Geography等期刊上。