Research

Publications

8. Panka Bencsik, Richard Dickens, and George MacKerron. (Accepted.) Violence in the Vicinity: The Mental Health Impacts of Nearby Crime. Economica.

7. Desmond Ang, Panka Bencsik, Jesse Bruhn, and Ellora Derenoncourt. (2025). Crime and Community Engagement with Law Enforcement after High-profile Acts of Police Violence. American Economic Review: Insights. 7 (1): 124–42.

6. Panka Bencsik, Lester Lusher, and Becca Taylor. (2025.) Slow Traffic, Fast Food: The Effects of Time Lost on Food Store Choice. Journal of Urban Economics. Vol. 146, 103737.

5. Panka Bencsik and Saayili Budhiraja*. (2025.) Cannabis Deregulation and Policing. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Volume 238, 107202.

4. Panka Bencsik, Timothy Halliday, and Bhash Mazumder. (2023). The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in the United Kingdom. Journal of Health Economics. Vol. 92. 102805.

3. Sergio Pinto, Panka Bencsik, Tuugi Chuluun, and Carol Graham. (2021). Presidential Elections, Divided Politics, and Happiness in the U.S. Economica. 88, no. 349 : 189-207.

2. Panka Bencsik, and Tuugi Chuluun. (2021). Comparative well-being of the self-employed and paid employees in the USA. Small Business Economics. 56, 355-384.

1. Panka Bencsik. (2018). The non-financial costs of violent public disturbances: Emotional responses to the 2011 riots in England. Journal of Housing Economics. 40, 73-82.

Working papers

Drug Arrest Diversion. (with Ashna Arora) [Previously titled "Policing Substance Use: Chicago's Treatment Program for Narcotics Arrests."]

Working paper

Award: Novartis Prize for best health economics paper, Irish Economic Association

Media coverage: Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, The Crime Report, NewsNation, WTTW - Chicago PBS

Policy coverage: California Law Revision Commission, Office of the Mayor (Chicago) (with direct quote), National Center for State Courts

Author podcast interview: Probable Causation (40 minutes)

Video coverage: UChicago Crime Lab - Narcotics Arrest Diversion Program

Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. reached a record high of 107,573 in 2021, 75% of which involved opioids. In response, hundreds of police departments across the country have begun to divert individuals who possess drugs away from arrest and into substance use treatment. This paper evaluates the impact of this approach on future criminal justice system involvement as well as fatal overdose risk using arrest-level variation in diversion eligibility in Chicago between 2010-22. Drug arrest diversion primarily benefitted individuals who used narcotics every day, increased connections with substance use treatment, and reduced subsequent arrests, but had no discernible impact on fatal overdose risk.

Projects in progress

(** graduate student co-author; ** pre-doc or undergraduate student co-author)

Calls and Conduct: The Impact of Free Communication on Prison Misconduct. (with Nour Abdul-Razzak, Brandon Domash*, and Omair Gill**)
The abstract describing this multi-year research project is available here.

Award: Program Chair award in the area of Crime and Health, American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon)

The Impact of Gunshots on Consumer and Business Activity. (with Jesse Bruhn and Adamson Bryant**)

Care Awareness and Health Outcomes: The New 988 Crisis Helpline

Local Prosecutors and Public Health. (with Tyler Giles)

Research impact

My research has been cited over 275 times (per Google Scholar) and has been covered in the media by over 50 news outlets nationally and internationally, including the Atlantic, Economist, and Chicago Tribune. My most covered journal article, "Slow Traffic, Fast Food," earned an Altmetric score of over 390 and places in the top 5% highest coverage among all research outputs across all disciplines indexed by Altmetric.

My research project "Drug Arrest Diversion" directly shaped policy, with the City of Chicago opting to effectively double the number of individuals eligible for accessing substance use treatment over criminal prosecution thanks to my and my co-author's work and to the successful local agency collaborations. (Read about the City of Chicago's announcement here.)

Public Writing

Slow Traffic, Fast Food: The effects of time lost on food store choice. IZA World of Labor, June 14, 2023 (with Lester Lusher and Becca Taylor)

Reducing substance abuse — without punishment. Chicago Tribune, December 1, 2022 (in print issue, lead Opinion piece) (with Ashna Arora)

Are the self-employed happy entrepreneurs?. Brookings Institution, September 29, 2017 (with Tuugi Chuluun and Carol Graham)

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