Research

We evaluate whether police officers use adjectives and adverbs that systematically differ by the suspect’s race (race-predictive language) and whether race-predictive language use relates to officer characteristics. We leverage a novel data set containing police report text from a single large urban police department. We identify race-predictive language using a linear combination of LASSO and ridge regression regularization with word counts, and we then use predicted race to construct an officer-level measure of race-predictive language. We find evidence that officers use different adjectives and adverbs in reports for Black versus white suspects. Black officers use less race-predictive language. Race-predictive language use correlates positively with officer inexperience and the number of instances of use-of-force.

We investigate whether increased racial diversity of clinical trial principal investigators could increase the enrollment of Black patients, which currently lags population and disease-burden shares. We conducted a survey experiment in which respondents were shown a photo of a current NIH investigator in which race (Black/White) was randomized. Sex was also randomized as a relevant benchmark. Black respondents reported 0.35 standard deviation units higher interest in participating in a clinical study led by a race concordant investigator (a 12.6% increase). Sex concordance had no effect. Further analyses indicate that perceived trustworthiness and attractiveness are the most important factors explaining these results.

Do white teachers learn racial competency from their Black peers? We answer this question using a mixed-methods approach. Longitudinal administrative data from North Carolina show that having a Black same-grade peer significantly improves the achievement and reduces the suspension rates of white teachers’ Black students. Open-ended interviews of North Carolina public school teachers reaffirm these findings. Broadly, our findings suggest that the positive impact of Black teachers’ ability to successfully teach Black students is not limited to their direct interaction with Black students but is augmented by spillover effects on early-career white teachers, likely through peer learning.

Will be posted November 2023.