SODAS Lecture: The Effects of Social Movements - Evidence from #MeToo

SODAS Lecture
We are delighted to host Ro'ee Levy for this SODAS Lecture

Title

The Effects of Social Movements: Evidence from #MeToo

Abstract

Social movements are associated with large societal changes, but evidence of their causal effects is limited. We study the effect of the MeToo movement on reporting sex crimes to the police. We construct a new dataset of crimes reported in 31 OECD countries and employ a triple-difference strategy between crime types, across countries, and over time. The movement increased the reporting of sex crimes by 10%. Using rich US data, we find that in contrast to a common criticism of the movement, the effect is similar across socioeconomic groups, and that the movement also increased arrests for sexual assault. The increased reporting reflects a higher propensity to report sex crimes and not an increase in crime incidence. The mechanism most consistent with our findings is that victims perceive sexual misconduct to be a more serious problem following the movement. Our results demonstrate that social movements can rapidly and persistently affect high-stakes decisions. Link to paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3496903

Bio

Ro'ee Levy is an assistant professor at the Tel Aviv University School of Economics. Before joining Tel Aviv University, Ro'ee visited MIT as a post-doc and received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He is an Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) affiliated professor and an affiliate of the SSRC Digital Platforms Initiative. Ro'ee studies political economy and social media. He is interested in the forces shaping social norms, political attitudes, and policy preferences, and their subsequent influence on individual behavior.