NYU Furman Center Fall Speaker Series - Felipe Goncalves

Please join the NYU Furman Center for a presentation:
 
Selection Bias and Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force
with
Felipe Goncalves
Assistant Professor of Economics
University of California, Los Angeles
 

The authors study racial disparities in police use of force. A pervasive issue in studies of policing is that the available data are selected by the police. As a result, disparities computed in the observed sample may be biased if selection into the data differs by race. The authors develop a framework and econometric strategy for correcting this bias, using variation across officers in enforcement intensity to identify the racial composition of the unobserved population at risk of selection. Using detailed administrative data on arrests and force incidents from Chicago and Seattle, they find that Black civilians comprise 56 percent of arrestees but about 49 percent of potential arrestees. Correcting for sample selection doubles their measure of the racial disparity in force rates. Decompositions of the corrected force disparity reveal that about 70 percent is unexplained by other demographic and incident characteristics, suggesting an important role for officer discrimination. The authors' selection bias estimates meaningfully impact the conclusions drawn in the existing literature. Read the full paper here.

REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND IN-PERSON.
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Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET

Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Room 216
40 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012

Light refreshments will be provided for in-person attendees.
 

About the Presenter:

Felipe Goncalves is an Assistant Professor of Economics at UCLA. He is a labor and public economist who studies policing, crime, and public safety. His research examines how discretion, incentives, and institutional structures shape police behavior and public safety. Felipe is an affiliate of the California Policy Lab and the National Bureau of Economic Research. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.A. in Economics-Mathematics from Columbia University.