LocationRoom BZ E5.20, Universitätsplatz 1 - Piazza Università, 1, 39100 Bozen-Bolzano
Departments Press and Events
Contact Sabine Zanin
Sabine.Zanin@unibz.it
23 Sept 2021 13:00-14:00
research seminar: Swiftness of Punishment (joint w/ L.Dusek)
Prof. Christian Traxler, Hertie School Berlin
LocationRoom BZ E5.20, Universitätsplatz 1 - Piazza Università, 1, 39100 Bozen-Bolzano
Departments Press and Events
Contact Sabine Zanin
Sabine.Zanin@unibz.it
for internal unibz participant physically present in the room register here
for external participants clic here to connect via teams
This project studies how the swiftness of punishment – the delay from committing an offense to being punished – affects behavior. The context of our study is the enforcement of speeding tickets via automated speed cameras. We track the full driving history of almost 50,000 ticketed cars over almost 4 years. In addition to observing speed outcomes, we also measure timely compliance with the payment notification. We exploit two sources of exogenous variation in the delay of sending speeding ticket: (1) Quasi-experimental variation due to administrative backlogs allows identifying the effects of long delays (one to three months)relative to intermediate delays (up to one month). (2) Truly experimental variation induced by randomizing the sequence in which tickets are sent. The latter design allows us to identify the effect of swift punishment (within 1--4days) relative to intermediate delays. To benchmark our results, we also resent predictions from an expert survey among Economists and Criminologists.