Daylight Saving Lives: the effect of daylight saving time on homicides

52 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2016 Last revised: 11 Feb 2019

See all articles by Weily Toro

Weily Toro

Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso

Robson Tigre

Stone Co.

Breno Sampaio

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Date Written: February 09, 2019

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the effect of Daylight Saving Time (DST) on homicides. As assignment into the policy follows technical reports from the National Electric System Operator, the Brazilian setup lends itself to both within and between states comparison of homicide levels around the date of transition and during the whole period of DST adoption. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find a decrease in the number of homicides by firearms of roughly 9.83% during DST months. In line with the crime deterrence hypothesis, we show this uncovered effect is mostly concentrated in hours directly affected by the shift in daylight caused by DST - i.e., during early evening hours. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the shift in clocks was responsible for saving about 5,035 potential victims from 2006-2015.

Keywords: Crime deterrence; Homicides; Regression Discontinuity Design; Day-light Saving Time

JEL Classification: K42, I18, C21

Suggested Citation

Toro, Weily and Tigre, Robson and Sampaio, Breno, Daylight Saving Lives: the effect of daylight saving time on homicides (February 09, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2786452 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2786452

Weily Toro

Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso ( email )

Av. Ingás, 3001 - Jardim Imperial
Sinop, MT 78550124
Brazil

Robson Tigre

Stone Co. ( email )

São Paulo
Brazil

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/view/rtigre

Breno Sampaio (Contact Author)

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco ( email )

United States

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