On the Public Finance of Capital Punishment

Event Date: 28 October 2020

Speaker: Alex Lundberg, West Virginia University

Time: 4.00-5.00pm

Abstract: A capital trial is a costly affair. When a local government bears the expense of trial, it must raise funds or reallocate them from other sources. In Texas, among other states, the cost of trial is borne primarily at the county level. A panel of Texas county spending over the last decade, constructed from audited financial statements, shows counties meet the expense of trial by raising property tax rates and by reducing public safety expenditure. Property crime appears to rise as a consequence of the latter. The death penalty may therefore impede criminal deterrence if trial expenses draw from other law enforcement funds.

Published: 8 April 2021