Brendan O’flaherty
Biographic Data
| ID | 2909763 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brendan O’flaherty |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brendan |
| FAMILY NAME | O’flaherty |
| SIGNATURE | O’FLAHERTY B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Columbia University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
On prison systems
In The Idea of Prison Abolition , Tommie Shelby evaluates arguments for and against the elimination of incarceration as a mode of punishment. In this article, we discuss and expand upon Shelby's arguments, using two very different systems—those of Norway and the United States—as examples to illustrate some general principles
Stereotypes, Crime, and Policing
Crime and policing activities routinely involve interactions between strangers and require the interacting parties to make highly consequential decisions under time pressure. Under such conditions, stereotypes based on visual or other cues can influence behavior. This review considers the role of stereotypes in shaping the manner in which such interactions proceed and the likelihood with which they occur in the first place. Our focus is primarily…
The nature, detection, and avoidance of harmful discrimination in criminal justice
We provide a selective survey of the literature on discrimination by criminal justice agents, and argue for a taxonomy of harms that differs from conventional approaches. Discrimination can be self‐defeating if it reduces welfare among targets of discrimination while serving no legitimate purpose for the discriminating party. Even if a legitimate purpose is served, discrimination can be deliberative or demeaning, resulting in welfare losses that …
Civil Rights, Employment, and Race
Why are there civil rights laws? What should their scope and coverage be? What are their weaknesses? How can they be improved? In answering these questions, I concentrate on employment and on race in the United States. Following Sophia Moreau, I argue that civil rights laws are ways of assigning rights that are needed when groups are victims of pervasive discrimination. Empirical economic work shows that blacks and Hispanics probably meet the rel…
Shadows of Doubt
Crime and punishment occur under extreme uncertainty. Offenders, victims, police, judges, and jurors make high-stakes decisions with limited information under severe time pressure. With compelling stories and data on how people act and react, O'Flaherty and Sethi reveal the extent to which we rely on stereotypes as shortcuts in our decision making
What happens when you give money to panhandlers? The case of downtown Manhattan
Homelessness in the United States
Homelessness has become more common in developed countries, especially the United States. This article reviews definitions of homelessness, the temporal dimensions of how people experience homelessness, the determinants of the volume of homelessness, the characteristics of homeless people, and the policies and interventions that have been successful in reducing homelessness. It discusses two popular views of what homelessness is like and what sho…
Homicide in black and white
The racial geography of street vice
Homeless Shelters for Single Adults
Using data on the time series of entries, exits, and censuses for women and men in single‐adult homeless shelters in New York City, this article examines correlates of shelter population change. Findings sometimes weakly support conventional wisdom about correlates of population change but usually run counter to it. For example, findings suggest that prosperity and good weather reduce the number of adults in shelters but that the prosperity effec…
Social programs and household size
Need and generosity
Globalization and the Rate of Technological Progress
The past century and a quarter has seen frequent improvements in track and field records. We attempt to estimate what proportion of the speed of record breaking is due to globalization (competitors from more countries) and what proportion is due to technological progress (better equipment and training techniques). It appears that technological change is the chief driving force but that technological progress is improving the performance of season…
Do Homeless Shelter Conditions Determine Shelter Population? The Case of the Dinkins Deluge
We study why families enter and leave homeless shelters. After 2 years of decline, the number of homeless families in New York City's shelter system began rising again in summer 1990 and continued to rise until it hit an all-time record high in summer 1993. The conventional wisdom is that a flood of new families were attracted into shelters by the Dinkins administration's aggressive policy of placing homeless families into subsidized housing. We …
Abandoned Buildings
Many buildings have been boarded up, forfeited, or demolished to make way for vacant lots in large United States Cities. Why? And why do these "abandoned" properties retain positive prices in the market? These phenomena, I argue, can be understood only in the context of uncertainty. The paper develops a model of building life cycles under uncertainty. In such a model it can, in certain states, be efficient to shut buildings down or demolish them …
The option value of tax delinquency
How taxes are enforced matters. Current enforcement of real property taxes does not consider the option value of delinquency: the ultimate penalty is confiscation of property sometime in the future, but the value of the property to be confiscated is not known with certainty. If redemption fees are sufficiently small, it can be optimal to wait and see what the size of the penalty will be before paying taxes. We show how this can lead to excessive …
Homicide in black and white
Social programs and household size
The option value of tax delinquency
How taxes are enforced matters. Current enforcement of real property taxes does not consider the option value of delinquency: the ultimate penalty is confiscation of property sometime in the future, but the value of the property to be confiscated is not known with certainty. If redemption fees are sufficiently small, it can be optimal to wait and see what the size of the penalty will be before paying taxes. We show how this can lead to excessive …
The racial geography of street vice
Do Homeless Shelter Conditions Determine Shelter Population? The Case of the Dinkins Deluge
We study why families enter and leave homeless shelters. After 2 years of decline, the number of homeless families in New York City's shelter system began rising again in summer 1990 and continued to rise until it hit an all-time record high in summer 1993. The conventional wisdom is that a flood of new families were attracted into shelters by the Dinkins administration's aggressive policy of placing homeless families into subsidized housing. We …
What happens when you give money to panhandlers? The case of downtown Manhattan
Need and generosity
On prison systems
In The Idea of Prison Abolition , Tommie Shelby evaluates arguments for and against the elimination of incarceration as a mode of punishment. In this article, we discuss and expand upon Shelby's arguments, using two very different systems—those of Norway and the United States—as examples to illustrate some general principles
Stereotypes, Crime, and Policing
Crime and policing activities routinely involve interactions between strangers and require the interacting parties to make highly consequential decisions under time pressure. Under such conditions, stereotypes based on visual or other cues can influence behavior. This review considers the role of stereotypes in shaping the manner in which such interactions proceed and the likelihood with which they occur in the first place. Our focus is primarily…
The nature, detection, and avoidance of harmful discrimination in criminal justice
We provide a selective survey of the literature on discrimination by criminal justice agents, and argue for a taxonomy of harms that differs from conventional approaches. Discrimination can be self‐defeating if it reduces welfare among targets of discrimination while serving no legitimate purpose for the discriminating party. Even if a legitimate purpose is served, discrimination can be deliberative or demeaning, resulting in welfare losses that …
Abandoned Buildings
Many buildings have been boarded up, forfeited, or demolished to make way for vacant lots in large United States Cities. Why? And why do these "abandoned" properties retain positive prices in the market? These phenomena, I argue, can be understood only in the context of uncertainty. The paper develops a model of building life cycles under uncertainty. In such a model it can, in certain states, be efficient to shut buildings down or demolish them …
The option value of tax delinquency
How taxes are enforced matters. Current enforcement of real property taxes does not consider the option value of delinquency: the ultimate penalty is confiscation of property sometime in the future, but the value of the property to be confiscated is not known with certainty. If redemption fees are sufficiently small, it can be optimal to wait and see what the size of the penalty will be before paying taxes. We show how this can lead to excessive …
Abandoned Buildings
Many buildings have been boarded up, forfeited, or demolished to make way for vacant lots in large United States Cities. Why? And why do these "abandoned" properties retain positive prices in the market? These phenomena, I argue, can be understood only in the context of uncertainty. The paper develops a model of building life cycles under uncertainty. In such a model it can, in certain states, be efficient to shut buildings down or demolish them …
Do Homeless Shelter Conditions Determine Shelter Population? The Case of the Dinkins Deluge
We study why families enter and leave homeless shelters. After 2 years of decline, the number of homeless families in New York City's shelter system began rising again in summer 1990 and continued to rise until it hit an all-time record high in summer 1993. The conventional wisdom is that a flood of new families were attracted into shelters by the Dinkins administration's aggressive policy of placing homeless families into subsidized housing. We …
Globalization and the Rate of Technological Progress
The past century and a quarter has seen frequent improvements in track and field records. We attempt to estimate what proportion of the speed of record breaking is due to globalization (competitors from more countries) and what proportion is due to technological progress (better equipment and training techniques). It appears that technological change is the chief driving force but that technological progress is improving the performance of season…
Need and generosity
Social programs and household size
Homeless Shelters for Single Adults
Using data on the time series of entries, exits, and censuses for women and men in single‐adult homeless shelters in New York City, this article examines correlates of shelter population change. Findings sometimes weakly support conventional wisdom about correlates of population change but usually run counter to it. For example, findings suggest that prosperity and good weather reduce the number of adults in shelters but that the prosperity effec…
Homicide in black and white
The racial geography of street vice
Homelessness in the United States
Homelessness has become more common in developed countries, especially the United States. This article reviews definitions of homelessness, the temporal dimensions of how people experience homelessness, the determinants of the volume of homelessness, the characteristics of homeless people, and the policies and interventions that have been successful in reducing homelessness. It discusses two popular views of what homelessness is like and what sho…
What happens when you give money to panhandlers? The case of downtown Manhattan
Civil Rights, Employment, and Race
Why are there civil rights laws? What should their scope and coverage be? What are their weaknesses? How can they be improved? In answering these questions, I concentrate on employment and on race in the United States. Following Sophia Moreau, I argue that civil rights laws are ways of assigning rights that are needed when groups are victims of pervasive discrimination. Empirical economic work shows that blacks and Hispanics probably meet the rel…
Shadows of Doubt
Crime and punishment occur under extreme uncertainty. Offenders, victims, police, judges, and jurors make high-stakes decisions with limited information under severe time pressure. With compelling stories and data on how people act and react, O'Flaherty and Sethi reveal the extent to which we rely on stereotypes as shortcuts in our decision making
Stereotypes, Crime, and Policing
Crime and policing activities routinely involve interactions between strangers and require the interacting parties to make highly consequential decisions under time pressure. Under such conditions, stereotypes based on visual or other cues can influence behavior. This review considers the role of stereotypes in shaping the manner in which such interactions proceed and the likelihood with which they occur in the first place. Our focus is primarily…
The nature, detection, and avoidance of harmful discrimination in criminal justice
We provide a selective survey of the literature on discrimination by criminal justice agents, and argue for a taxonomy of harms that differs from conventional approaches. Discrimination can be self‐defeating if it reduces welfare among targets of discrimination while serving no legitimate purpose for the discriminating party. Even if a legitimate purpose is served, discrimination can be deliberative or demeaning, resulting in welfare losses that …
On prison systems
In The Idea of Prison Abolition , Tommie Shelby evaluates arguments for and against the elimination of incarceration as a mode of punishment. In this article, we discuss and expand upon Shelby's arguments, using two very different systems—those of Norway and the United States—as examples to illustrate some general principles
Economics (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Criminology (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Demographic economics (5 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (5 works) · Law and economics (5 works)