Dominguez, M. Sweeping Up Gangs: The Effects of Tough-on-Crime Policies from a Network Approach. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, forthcoming
Dominguez, M., and Montolio, D. (2021). Bolstering community ties as a means of reducing crime. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 191:916–945.
Aboal, D., Lanzilotta, B., Dominguez, M. and Vairo, M. (2016). The Cost of Crime and Violence in Five Latin American Countries. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 22(4):689-711.
Dominguez, M., and Kirchmaier, T. (2025). Cost of Living and Crime in London: Lessons from an Empirical and Collaborative Study. In P. Dawson (Ed.) Applied Policing Policy Research: Improving Evidence Based Oversight of the Police. Springer Nature Switzerland.
Dominguez, M., and Montolio, D. (2022). Social prevention of crime: alternatives to policing measures in an urban context. In P. Buonanno, J.F. Vargas, and P. Vanin (Eds.) A Modern Guide to Economics of Crime. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Dominguez, M. (2022). Gäng, nätverk och brott – lärdomar för Sverige. Ekonomisk Debatt, 50(4):55-65.
Neighborhood Labeling and Youth Schooling Paths
(with Hans Grönqvist and Torsten Santavirta)
Under review
In 2015, the Swedish police unexpectedly published their internal list identifying "vulnerable areas." The public release of the list gave rise to a significant increase in media reports about the listed neighborhoods that often portrayed them negatively. Yet, it did not lead to considerable police interventions regarding resources or public effort. Exploiting geocoded data on the police list, neighborhoods, and schools, we explore how the release affected the performance and sorting of students completing compulsory school and applying to high schools. Our research strategy compares the change in the outcomes of individuals living in listed neighborhoods with those in non-listed areas with comparable sociodemographic characteristics. Our main finding is that listing a neighborhood did not affect student performance but substantially increased sorting. Students from listed neighborhoods were less likely to sort into high schools with peers from high-SES backgrounds and were more likely to sort into high schools within their neighborhoods. Our results are consistent with models of neighborhood labeling wherein residents in neighborhoods with a negative public image adjust their behavior in response to anticipated or actual discrimination.
Networking Entrepreneurs
(with Fernando Vega-Redondo, Paolo Pin, Diego Ubfal, Cristiana Benedetti-Fasil, Charles Brummitt, Gaia Rubera, Dirk Hovy, Tommaso Fornaciari)
Under review
Can peer interaction foster entrepreneurship in large-scale environments? This paper addresses the question empirically and theoretically. Empirically, we tested the effects of peer interaction on the number and quality of business plans submitted in a Pan-African RCT including 5,000 entrepreneurs. The treatment provided the possibility of interaction in different interaction settings (face-to-face or virtual, peers being of the same or diverse nationalities). We find that, while estimated network effects are almost always strong, the treatment effect is not so and displays a non-monotone trade-off between diversity and interaction “bandwidth.” We develop a model that sheds light on this behavior by differentiating between constructive and disruptive interaction. It is also qualitatively supported by our experimental evidence
Behind closed doors: Crime composition in gang territory
(with Daniel Montolio)
Gang activity is a big concern in many cities nowadays. Besides the worrisome involvement in local crime, concerns are exacerbated as they cause distress to residents. This paper identifies fine-grained gang presence in an urban area in a developed country. To do so, we use registered crimes in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona attributed to local gang members. We also analyze crime composition changes by exploiting a regression discontinuity method around gang boundaries. We find that the number of crimes is not significantly different. However, there are significant differences in its composition. Inside gang areas, there is a larger share of crimes against the person and male offenders to female victims.
Organised Crime Networks: Clustering Identification and Role of Key Players
(with Rui Costa, Rebecca Rose, Matteo Sandi)