About

Richard Boylan is a Professor of Economics at Rice University and an associate for Brown College. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1991 and his M.S. from the same institution in 1988. He earned his B.A. with honors from Pitzer College in 1986. His research focuses on issues in law and economics, political economy, game theory, and experimental economics. He has previously held academic positions at the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi, and the Olin School of Business at Washington University.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Criminology
• Environmental health
• Law
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Geography
• Demographic economics
• Statistics
• Economics
• Business
• Demography
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• How Court Mitigation of Jail Overcrowding Affects Homicides

  The Journal of Law and Economics · 2025-08-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  I analyze court orders issued between 1970 and 1988 that were intended to address jail overcrowding. I find that these court orders led to a 21 percent reduction in jail populations but resulted in a 15 percent increase in homicide rates outside of jails. Recent scholarly work suggests that jail incarceration rates could have been reduced without significantly impacting crime. Thus, my findings suggest that court orders may be an ineffective method for reforming jails.

  PublisherDOI

• Are the geographic disparities in U.S. violent crime rising?

  PLoS ONE · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Geography

  Inequality in economic and social outcomes across U.S. regions has grown in recent decades. The economic theory of crime predicts that this increased variability would raise geographic disparities in violent crime. Instead, I find that geographic disparities in homicide rates decreased. Moreover, these same decades saw decreases in the geographic disparities in policing, incarceration, and the share of the population that is African American. Thus, changes in policing, incarcerations, and racial composition could have led to a decrease in inequality in homicide rates. Moreover, the joint provision of law enforcement by local, state, and federal authorities may have reduced the impact of economic distress on violent crime.

  PublisherDOI

• Does Measurement Error Distort Our Perception of Crime Rates?

  2023

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Criminology
  • Statistics
  • Demographic economics
  PublisherDOI

• Should cities disband their police departments?

  Journal of Urban Economics · 2022 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Law
  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Court-Ordered District Elections on City Finances

  The Journal of Law and Economics · 2019-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In 1972, the representation of blacks on city councils was only half of their share of the US population. Starting in 1975, courts sought to increase minority representation by ruling at-large city council elections unconstitutional in jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination. Economic theory suggests that this court-induced shift toward district elections could lead to a common-pool problem and thus to greater government noninfrastructure spending. This paper provides empirical evidence that cities that adopt district elections increase noninfrastructure spending, thus providing empirical support for the common-pool problem. Since political institutions seldom change, the shift of US cities to district elections may be long-lasting, which suggests that the goals of equal representation and effective governance may be at odds.

  PublisherDOI

• Does Private Ownership Reduce Political Distortions? Evidence from U.S. Electric Utilities

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2018-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• THE MOST UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL? STATE SPENDING ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE DURING RECESSIONS

  National Tax Journal · 2017-04-28 · 14 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The dramatic deterioration in state finances during the Great Recession raised concerns regarding government's ability to support community health and education. Because recessions differentially affect states with different tax structures, we could examine the effect of changes in state revenues on expenditures while controlling for demand-side factors that influence program utilization. We find that state revenue declines lead to short and long terms cuts in children's Medicaid benefits, and declines in elderly Medicaid enrollment. Larger cuts (nominal and proportional) in education spending versus Medicaid occurred. We suggest institutional, political, and economic constraints that may determine program cuts.

  PublisherDOI

• Power to the People: Does Ownership Type Influence Electricity Service?

  The Journal of Law and Economics · 2016-05-01 · 9 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  After storm-related power outages, many have recommended municipalizing investor-owned utilities, claiming that profit-making utilities have insufficient incentive to prepare for storms. I provide empirical evidence that municipal utilities spend more on maintenance of their distribution network than investor-owned utilities. Nonetheless, I find that storms significantly disrupt electricity consumption in areas served by municipal utilities but do not disrupt areas served by investor-owned utilities. These results are based on a stratified random sample of 241 investor-owned, 96 cooperative, and 94 municipal utilities in the United States between 1999 and 2012. I conclude that municipal utilities’ in-efficiencies are more important in causing power outages than investor-owned utilities’ disincentives to spend on maintenance.

  PublisherDOI

• An evaluation of the performance of two different global satellite navigation systems, Trimble’s CenterPoint RTX and a conventional network RTK system

  2016-10-01 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In the middle of 2011 Trimble introduced the CenterPoint Real time extended (RTX) real-time positioning service providing centimetre accurate positions for real-time applications. This emerging technology means that a GNSS system can be used without reliance on an internet connection, and independent from a conventional base/rover set up, thus overcoming the limitations of the existing systems. A comprehensive literature search reveals a lack of testing in the Sothern Hemisphere to date. This new solution needs to be tested for accuracies and precisions that can be achieved by comparing against a conventional network RTK (NRTK) system and determine if there is any significant decrease in accuracy or precision over time. The tests were conducted on a high accuracy survey permanent mark which has known coordinate values. The testing included the data collection from both systems (RTX and NRTK) on the survey mark individually. Coordinates from each system were compared against the known coordinates to assess accuracy and precision. RTX failed to meet the meet the accuracies or precisions as stated in the manufacturers datasheets but the system’s precisions did increase over time. The benefit of this dissertation is to produce a reliable and current set of results in the Sothern Hemisphere and to assist the survey profession in understanding this new emerging technology.

  Publisher

• Power to the People: Does Ownership Type Influence Electricity Service?

  eYLS (Yale Law School) · 2014-08-01

  preprint1st authorCorresponding

  After storm-related power outages, many have recommended municipalizing investor-owned utilities, claiming that profit-making utilities have insufficient incentive to prepare for storms. I provide empirical evidence that municipal utilities spend more on maintenance of their distribution network than investor-owned utilities. Nonetheless, I find that storms significantly disrupt electricity consumption in areas served by municipal utilities but do not disrupt areas served by investor-owned utilities. These results are based on a stratified random sample of 241 investor-owned, 96 cooperative, and 94 municipal utilities in the United States between 1999 and 2012. I conclude that municipal utilities’ in-efficiencies are more important in causing power outages than investor-owned utilities’ disincentives to spend on maintenance.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Naci Mocan

  Louisiana State University

  11 shared

• Cheryl Long

  Xiamen University

  7 shared

• Mahmoud A. El‐Gamal

  5 shared

• Richard D. McKelvey

  California Institute of Technology

  3 shared

• Bente Villadsen

  2 shared

• John O. Ledyard

  California Institute of Technology

  2 shared

• Simon Grant

  2 shared

• Vivian Ho

  Rice University

  2 shared