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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Diego Zambiasi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
This paper examines how political rhetoric shapes law enforcement behaviour. We analyse monthly arrest data from 1,420 police agencies across thirty-eight US states between January 1981 and December 1992, a period when US presidents intensified anti-drug messaging, particularly targeting crack cocaine, which the media disproportionately linked to Black communities. We construct a novel measure of national rhetoric intensity and show that it received greater coverage in local newspapers in counties where Republicans and Democrats had comparable support, using this differential media exposure as a proxy for local susceptibility to the rhetoric. Our findings reveal that greater exposure to this rhetoric led to a significant rise in drug possession arrests among Black individuals, with no corresponding increase for White individuals, thereby widening racial disparities in arrests.
Author(s): Barilari F, Zambiasi D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: The Economic Journal
Year: 2026
Volume: 136
Issue: 674
Pages: 468-506
Print publication date: 02/02/2026
Online publication date: 11/07/2025
Acceptance date: 08/07/2025
Date deposited: 27/05/2026
ISSN (print): 0013-0133
ISSN (electronic): 1468-0297
Publisher: Royal Economic Society
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueaf055
DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaf055
Data Access Statement: The data and codes for this paper are available on the Journal repository. They were checked for their ability to reproduce the results presented in the paper. The replication package for this paper is available at the following address: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15752518 .
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