Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in São Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach

This Github repository contains data and documented R code for "Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in São Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach," authored by Danilo Freire. The paper has been published in the Latin American Research Review.

Abstract: Although Brazil remains severely affected by civil violence, the state of São Paulo has made significant inroads into fighting criminality. In the last decade, São Paulo has witnessed a 70% decline in homicide rates, a result that policy-makers attribute to a series of crime-reducing measures implemented by the state government. While recent academic studies seem to confirm this downward trend, no estimation of the total impact of state policies on homicide rates currently exists. The present article fills this gap by employing the synthetic control method to compare these measures against an artificial São Paulo. The results indicate a large drop in homicide rates in actual São Paulo when contrasted with the synthetic counterfactual, with about 20,000 lives saved during the period. The theoretical usefulness of the synthetic control method for public policy analysis, the role of the Primeiro Comando da Capital as a causal mediator, and the practical implications of the security measures taken by the São Paulo state government are also discussed.

Keywords: Brazil, homicides, PCC, synthetic control, urban violence

You can cite the article as:

Freire, Danilo. 2018. "Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in São Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach." Latin American Research Review 53(2), 231–249. DOI: http://doi.org/10.25222/larr.334

BibTeX entry:

@article{freire2018evaluating,
  title={Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in S{\~a}o Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach},
  author={Freire, Danilo},
  journal={Latin American Research Review},
  volume={53},
  number={2},
  pages={231--249},
  year={2018},
  publisher={Latin American Studies Association}
}