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Research summary: For centuries and even millenia, street lighting has been among the most ubiquitous capital investments that societies have made in public safety. Recent research by Chalfin et al. (2021)—the first randomized experiment that studies the effect of street lighting on public safety—demonstrated that a tactical street lighting intervention in New York City's public housing developments led to a 36% reduction in serious criminal activity during nighttime hours in the 6 months after the new lights were rolled out. But do the effects endure? In this study, we examine the longer‐term effects of the same street lighting intervention using 3 years of outcome data. We show that the effects of the lighting intervention persist over time. Critically, the intervention reduced crime without eventually leading to a larger number of arrests. Policy implications: As street lighting requires a large up‐front capital investment, the attractiveness of enhanced lighting to policy makers depends critically on whether its public safety benefits will be long lasting. These findings provide some assurance that the impact of street lighting can endure beyond their initial installation. Because the lighting intervention reduced crime without increasing the number of arrests, it did not reduce crime by widening the net of the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: In 2017, Seattle, Washington, became the first city in the United States to increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour, more than double the federal minimum wage. Not only was a $15 minimum wage unprecedented, but the increase was also extremely rapid, with the minimum wage rising by nearly 60% in just 2 years. Using a synthetic differences‐in‐differences estimator, we consider the impact of Seattle's landmark minimum wage legislation on public safety. Although there is speculative evidence for an increase in commercial burglaries, we find little evidence that Seattle experienced a change in its aggregate rate of violent or property offending relative to other U.S. cities. To better understand the mechanisms underlying our findings, we investigate the impacts of the local wage law on employment and earnings for Seattle's low‐skilled labor market. We detect no meaningful adverse effects on the employment rates of low‐wage workers. Policy Implications: Our results suggest that Seattle increased its minimum wage without compromising public safety. Seattle's experience shows that increasing wages can be a tool for increasing the opportunity cost of crime without reducing employment levels. To the extent that other cities enact higher minimum wages to a level that generates unemployment among low‐skilled workers, public safety changes could be considerably different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]