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A prostitute is more likely to have sex with a police officer than to get officially arrested by one.
That's from the new Levitt-Venkatesh paper, hat tips to Matt Yglesias and Kerry Howley, both of whom add interesting commentary.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 14, 2008 at 10:18 AM in Law | Permalink
Comments
Well, that sentence made my day.
I wonder if the same applies to owners of doughnut shops. Heheheheh
This also was interesting: "Where pimps are active, prostitutes appear to do
better, with pimps both providing protection and paying efficiency wages."
Common perception is that pimps exploit women and make them work for nothing, no?
And "Proximity to train stations, major roads, and many
households on public assistance are all positively related to prostitution arrests; an
abundance of female-headed households is negatively related"
That second part is interesting. What is the mechanism that accomplishes that? I would've guessed that higher incidence of female-headed households might be related to poverty, which would shift the supply of prostitutes outward.
Posted by: Robert Olson at Jan 14, 2008 10:58:33 AM
In the following Princeton podcast, Levitt talked about actually meeting and advising a prostitute who charged $300 per hour(of course for academic purposes) and actually she taught one of Levitt's classes at Princeton.
http://bayesianheresy.blogspot.com/2007/12/assorted-steven-levitt.html
Posted by: MJ at Jan 14, 2008 12:18:33 PM
I know that much of the work of researchers is great, but I classify this alongside the "study" that came out in 2003 saying that video games are addicting. These aren't studies adding to the general body of knowledge. These are studies to make stupid and/or willfully blind people see the world as it is.
I suppose I'm not really criticizing the economists here. Perhaps informing people of the obvious is part of their legitimate role in society. In fact, that's probably more productive, on average, than adding to the general body of knowledge. It just seems odd to me that we need economists playing that role.
Posted by: infopractical at Jan 14, 2008 12:35:54 PM
I wonder how much of the "business" from the policemen is really just a "professional courtesy?" I'd imagine that a cop could negotiate a pretty low fee when he can hold sending them to jail over their heads...
Isaac Crawford
Blogging in Yemen
www.isaharr.com
Posted by: Isaac Crawford at Jan 14, 2008 12:47:10 PM
How would you define an unofficial arrest?
Posted by: at Jan 14, 2008 1:16:35 PM
Heh, you gotta love how that works.
"Are you a cop?"
"Yes... *but I'm not on duty or anything*! Nah, nah, this isn't a setup, feel free to inspect the room,
we can take a random different one if you want, and I'm following the no-clear-transaction protocols."
Posted by: Person at Jan 14, 2008 4:45:15 PM
