IMPACTS OF BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS ON CRIME OUTCOMES IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA: DYNAMIC PANEL DATA ANALYSES
Open Access
- Author:
- Han, Sehee
- Graduate Program:
- Public Administration
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 02, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Goktug Morcol, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Goktug Morcol, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jonathan Lee, Committee Member
Steven A. Peterson, Committee Member
Nihal Bayraktar, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Business improvement districts
BIDs
dynamic panel data analysis
panel data analysis
crime rates
crime counts
Philadelphia
crime - Abstract:
- During the last few decades, business improvement districts (BIDs), self-assessment districts formed by property owners in designated areas, have become an increasingly popular urban governance mechanism for providing local public goods. BIDs are self-financing public service delivery mechanisms. BID managers levy assessments on all property owners in their designated areas once they are established and use the money to deliver services in them. BIDs have become popular means to address the free-rider problems in local economies. They have become an increasingly popular topic of study among scholars. It has been suggested that BIDs could be effective mechanisms for preventing and reducing crime in their designated areas. So far, only a few researchers have investigated the impacts of BIDs on crime outcomes. A major limitation of previous empirical studies is that they did not investigate the dynamic relationship between BIDs and crime. In other words, they did not consider the possibility that the previous rates of crime could affect the current BID establishment and crime rates. The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate the impact of BIDs on crime rates in the city of Philadelphia using panel data from 1998 to 2009. I examine particularly the dynamic relationship between the existence of a BID and crime rate. I factor in the possibility that the current BID establishment is influenced by previous levels of crime rate; this approach can improve estimating the causal effect of BIDs on crime rates. More specifically I address the dynamic panel bias, which has been neglected in the previous studies, by using the Anderson-Hsiao estimators. Overall, I found in my analyses that BIDs are effective in reducing a limited number of crime outcomes. I found a negative association between BIDs and the aggravated assault rate, showing that an approximately 26% reduction in the aggravated assault rate was due to the existence of a BID in an area. I also found that areas with five years or less of BID operation were 26% lower in the aggravated assault rate in comparison with non-BID areas. The results of my dissertation indicate that crime reduction cannot be achieved simply by establishing a BID in a neighborhood. The results may indicate that understanding the area around BID neighborhoods and their relationships with BIDs, and the structure and implementation strategies of BIDs, are more important for crime reduction. This is an important issue that warrants further investigation as it can provide valuable information for local governments and neighborhood property owners in managing and redesigning BIDs to be effective urban mechanisms to reduce and prevent crime.