Exceptional Argentina Di Tella, Glaeser and Llach - Thomas Piketty

Buenos Aires shows that – from 1910 to 2003 – average yearly mortality has increase by two
policemen every decade. Nothing disproportionate considering the growth in both the city
population and the Police Force. 18 Other environmental component that may have an impact
on the Police is the judicial process and the penalties. As a proxy for it, one can see that
incarceration rate is twice as big in Chile than in Argentina; 235 versus 114 incarcerated people
per 100,000 inhabitants. Note, however, that this is still a third or a quarter of what it is in the
United States, with 700 incarcerated per 100,000 people UNODC (2002) 19 . With the available
evidence it’s hard to discard that interaction with the judiciary is not binding for the quality of
the Police. Other three “environmental factors” may also underlie a lower supply of bribes in
Chile vis-à-vis Argentina. First, faults and crimes against a policeman are judged by a military
court in Chile, whereas in Argentina, on top of the low social stigma from bribing and the low
monitoring, bribers are judged by civilian courts, which usually means a lower expected
punishment. Second, different anecdotes of the Police suggest that the prohibition of illegal
games and prostitution was more active in Argentina than in Chile. This may have created
higher quasi-rents for colluding with the Police and induced the proliferation of Mafias. 20
Third, during the 20th century Argentina had more Mafias than Chile. Even though highly
organized crime can completely distort incentives and induce malfeasance 21 , the difference in
Organized crime today seems too small to be the cause of the difference in perceptions about
police performance in these two countries Finally, it is important to remark that “cultural
differences” between the two countries cannot fully account for the differential performance of
Police Forces. As we will see in the next section, there are some islands of low corruption in
Argentina. This seems inconsistent with an across the board Chile-Argentina cultural
difference as an explanation. Interestingly, incentive systems similar to the one of Carabineros
de Chile seem to produce comparable results in Argentina.
5. Argentinean Police forces organized similar to the Chilean
Carabineros are also better evaluated.
Unlike Chile, Argentina, has many types of street level Police Forces. The majority of
policemen correspond to the Provincial forces, which account for more tha 170,000 officers,
including the personnel of the PFA, which has street level duties in the City of Buenos Aires .
However, there are also two national organizations of security forces, Gendarmeria Nacional
and Prefectura Naval, which jointly account for some 36,000 active members. These more
militarized forces have a very different organizational structure. Interestingly, these two forces
also receive a better evaluation from citizens in Argentina. Figure 8 shows that the civilian
Police Forces (PFA and Police of the Province of Buenos Aires) have roughly twice the
negative perception than the militarized ones. Although this survey was made in 2001, two
years before militarized forces started to have a broader role as cops, we think that the trend is
still valid today. First, because it is consistent with qualitative interviews we recently held in
Argentina. Second, because in recent events of salient crimes, neighbors appeared on TV
asking for more protection from Gendarmes. Finally, in Figure 98 we observe that the
advantage is also present for residents of the City of Buenos Aires, where militarized forces
had activity before 2001.
18 See appendix
19 Eight UNOCD Survey. Available at http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/eighthsurvey/8sv.pdf
20 See Andersen, 2002 for references
21 Ernesto Dal Bó & Pedro Dal Bó & Rafael Di Tella, metricconverterProductID2002. "2002. "’Plata o Plomo’:
Bribe and Punishment in a Theory of Political Influence," Working Papers 2002-28, Brown University,
Department of Economics.