Economics of Crime Working Group Meeting
Organized by Jens Ludwig and Crystal Yang
Supported by Arnold Ventures
February 6, 2026
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Grand Ballroom A, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA and Zoom
Format: The total time of 50 min will be interspersed with Q&A from the audience. The author will be given the first 10 min at the beginning to present uninterrupted.
Thursday, February 5
6:30 pm
Group Dinner
The Lexington, 100 N First Street, Cambridge, MA
Friday, February 6
8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
9:00 am

What Makes a Good Cop? Measuring Officer Quality and the Trade-Off Between Policing and Public Safety

Roman Rivera, Georgetown University
9:50 am

Police Officer Identification, Misconduct, and Public Trust

Thomas Simon, University of Mannheim
Felix W. Vetter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gerrit von Zedlitz, University of Mannheim
10:40 am
Break
10:55 am

Police Officer Interactions in Arrests, Stops, and Use of Force

Katherine H. Kwok, University of Wisconsin - Madison
11:45 am
Lunch - Grand Ballroom B
12:45 pm

Worker Behavior Under Optional Oversight: Theory and Evidence from Police Body-Worn Cameras

Andrew Jordan, Washington University in St. Louis
Taeho Kim, University of Toronto
Soumendra Lahiri, Washington University in St. Louis
Christopher Lucas, Washington University in St. Louis
Kyle T. Rozema, Northwestern University
1:35 pm

Measuring Racial Disparities in Police Stops: Evidence from Telemetric Mobility Data

Xiaofeng Gong, University of Connecticut
Yuling Han, Northeastern University
Susan T. Parker, Northwestern University
Matthew B. Ross, Northeastern University
Stephen Ross, University of Connecticut and NBER
2:25 pm
Break
2:40 pm

Same Crime, Different Time: Disparities in Judicial Outcomes for DWI Offenders

Jeffrey T. Denning, University of Texas at Austin and NBER
Benjamin Hansen, University of Oregon and NBER
Lars Lefgren, Brigham Young University and NBER
Emily C. Leslie, Brigham Young University
Cody Tuttle, University of Texas at Austin
3:30 pm
Adjourn