Economics Research Community Seminar

Title: Private Provision of Public Goods: the case of the UK Private Security Sector
Date: 05 October 2022
Time: 13:00-14:00
Location: Zoom

Guest Speaker: Matteo Pazzona is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in economics at Brunel University London. His primary fields are Economics of Crime, Economics of Conflict, Labor Economics, Political Economy and Economic History.

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/jppqKGCFA6.

Abstract
Despite the increasing role of the private sector in providing security, the economics literature has yet to fully understand its implications. In particular, it is unclear whether, and how, private agents react to governments’ investments. In this study, I analyze such a relationship for the UK, an ideal case study due to the presence of a robust private security sector, but also significant variation in the government provision of this good. Using a novel dataset, I study how different types of employment in private security respond to changes in the number of police officers enrolled in highly visible patrolling activities. Results from this analysis unambiguously show that the private sector is not affected by government spending. Findings are robust to several robustness threats, related to the measurement of both sectors, and the econometric identification.