Hooliganism in the Shadow of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack and the Tsunami: Do Police Reduce Group Violence?

By Panu Poutvaara, Mikael Priks

This paper isolates the causal effect policing has on group violence. The problem of reverse causality from violence to policing is addressed us-ing a change in the allocation of the Stockholm Supporter Police following the 9/11 terrorist attack in September 2001 and the Tsunami Catastrophe in December 2005. We analyze unique data on supporter violence in Swe-den before, under, and after the period supporter police was reallocated to anti-terrorist activities and to Tsunami-related activities.

Munich:ifo Institute for Economic Research, 2006, 21p.