Dr. Dick Carpenter is a senior director of strategic research at the Institute for Justice. He works with IJ staff and attorneys to define, im plement and manage social science research related to the Institute’s mission. His work has appeared in academic journals such as Economic Development Quarterly, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Economic Affairs, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, The Forum, Fordham Urban Law Journal, International Journal of Ethics, Education and Urban Society, Urban Studies, and Regulation and Governance.
His research results have also been quoted in such newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Carpenter’s research for IJ has resulted in reports including License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing, 2nd ed.; The Price of Taxation By Citation: Case Studies of Three Georgia Cities That Rely Heavily On Fines and Fees; Upwardly Mobile: Street Vending and the American Dream; Seize First, Question Later: The IRS and Civil Forfeiture; and Victimizing the Vulnerable: The Demographics of Eminent Domain Abuse. He is also co-author of the book Bottleneckers: Gaming the Government for Power and Private Profit.
Dick's Research & Reports
Economic Liberty | Vending
Does the Growth of Food Trucks Threaten the Sustainability of Restaurants? Evidence From a Nationwide Analysis of U.S. Businesses
This article examines whether growth in the food truck sector in the United States harms restaurants, as restaurateurs and their allies often claim. Using 12 years of nationwide data in a dynamic panel data analysis, we…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Does Civil Forfeiture Fight Crime? Evidence From New Mexico
This study examined civil forfeiture’s impact on crime rates. Proponents of civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to take and permanently keep property without a criminal conviction, claim it is an essential crime-fighting tool, particularly…
Code Enforcement | Fines and Fees | Private Property
Are Municipal Fines and Fees Tools of Stategraft?
Most, if not all, incorporated communities in the United States have municipal and traffic codes that delineate the powers and duties of local governments or provide rules and regulations for public activity in the community.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Generating Revenue Through Civil Forfeiture
Civil forfeiture is a mechanism by which law enforcement can seize and keep property purportedly connected to a crime absent the arrest, formal charging, or even conviction of the property owner. Forfeiture laws also…
Economic Liberty | Vending
Food Truck Truth: Why Restaurants—and Cities—Have Nothing to Fear from Mobile Food Businesses
Learn more about our vending work. The Institute for Justice challenges anti-competitive laws that harm street vendors by unconstitutionally restricting their right to earn an honest living. LEARN MORE…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair
Victims of civil forfeiture call it frustrating, corrupt and unfair. This first-of-its-kind survey describes the experiences of victims of one civil forfeiture program, Philadelphia’s.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Introducing a New Data Set on Municipal-Level Occupational Regulation
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss new findings on municipal-level occupational licensing and other forms of regulation and introduce a new data set available for researchers to study this largely unexplored area.
Code Enforcement | Fines and Fees | Private Property
A Case Study of Municipal Taxation by Citation
This study examines taxation by citation—local governments using code enforcement and the justice system to raise revenue rather than solely to advance public health and safety. It does so through a detailed case study of…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
A New Panel Dataset for Studies Using Substate Units of Analysis and Indicators of Drug Activity: Additional Information
The data below are available for the article, “A New Panel Dataset for Studies Using Substate Units of Analysis and Indicators of Drug Activity” published in Urban Affairs Review. The data are provided in four…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
A New Panel Dataset for Studies Using Substate Units of Analysis and Indicators of Drug Activity
This research note reports on the creation of a new panel dataset using multiple waves of substate estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. It also provides identifying information that contains state,…
Code Enforcement | Fines and Fees | Private Property
Municipal Fines and Fees
Cities and towns nationwide use their power to enforce traffic, property code and other ordinances to raise revenue rather than solely to protect the public. And, as this report finds, a wide range of state…
Code Enforcement | Fines and Fees | Private Property
The Price of Taxation by Citation
Taxation by citation is when local governments use their power to enforce traffic and other ordinances to raise revenue rather than solely to protect the public. This report explores the phenomenon via case studies of…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
The Continuing Burden of Occupational Licensing in the United States
This study follows up an earlier study in which we examined the scope and burden of 102 occupational licensing laws in the United States for low‐ and moderate‐income occupations. Using data collected in 2017, findings…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Additional Information: The Continuing Burden of Occupational Licensing in the United States
This page displays additional results for the article, “The Continuing Burden of Occupational Licensing in the United States,” published in Economic Affairs. Section 3.3 (Change over Time) describes differences in licensing requirements among occupations and states…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
You’ll Need a License for That Job
In 2013, Heather Kokesch Del Castillo found herself in an unfulfilling career and began to question whether she was following her true passion. At the same time, she was growing increasingly dissatisfied with her physical…
Economic Liberty | Vending
Street Vending in the United States: A Unique Dataset from a Survey of Street Vendors in America’s Largest Cities
The data described in this article come from an original survey of street vendors in the 50 largest cities in the United States. One of the most persistent, although little understood, features of the urban…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
The Questionable Ethics of Civil Forfeiture
On a cool, sunny November day, Mark Brewer – a disabled decorated U.S. Air Force veteran – was driving through the state of Nebraska on his way to Los Angles to visit his uncle. While…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
License to Work 2
License to Work, 2nd Edition Published in 2017, this is an older edition of IJ’s landmark License to Work report. You can download the report and read about data improvements we made between the first…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Vending
Bottleneckers: The Origins of Occupational Licensing and What Can Be Done About Its Excesses
At this moment, a campaign is being waged in America’s state capitals. Its purpose? To protect the public from the menace of unregulated music therapists. A music therapist “directs and participates in instrumental and vocal…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Vending
Bottleneckers: Gaming the Government for Power and Private Profit
The Left, Right and Center all hate them: powerful special interests who use government power for their own private benefit. In an era when the Left hates “fat cats” and the Right despises “crony capitalists,” now there…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Occupations: A Hierarchy of Regulatory Options
Momentum is growing in favor of reining in excessive occupational licensing. However, policymaking in this arena is too often plagued by assumptions that the only regulatory options are no licensing or full licensing. Such binary…
Educational Choice | Tax Credit Scholarships
On Common Constitutional Ground
Launched in 2008, Georgia’s scholarship tax credit program will help over 13,000 children get the best education for their needs at secular and religious private schools this year. But in 2014 school choice opponents sued…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Policing for Profit: Second Edition
Policing for Profit, 2nd Edition Published in 2015, this is an older edition of IJ’s landmark Policing for Profit report. You can download the report here, but please see the fourth and current edition for the most up-to-date…
Economic Liberty | Vending
Upwardly Mobile
Executive Summary As old as the country itself, American street vending has never been more prominent. It’s the subject of television shows, think pieces and—less happily—burdensome regulations in cities coast to coast. Despite vending’s popularity…
Educational Choice
Who Chooses and Why in a Universal Choice Scholarship Program: Evidence From Douglas County, Colorado
This article studies parental decision making in a unique school choice program—a universal voucher system in a middle- and upper-income suburban/rural school district. A survey of parents found that applicants and nonapplicants looked similar across…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Regulating work: Measuring the burden and scope of occupational licensure among low- and moderate-income occupations in the United States
This study examines the scope and burden of occupational licensing laws in the United States for 102 low- and moderate-income occupations. Findings indicate that the licences studied require of aspiring workers, on average, $US209 in…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Seize First, Question Later
Thanks to federal civil forfeiture laws, the Internal Revenue Service has seized millions of dollars from thousands of Americans’ bank accounts without proof of criminal wrongdoing.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
When legal is not ethical
Civil forfeiture laws in the United States facilitate, indeed encourage, unethical behavior on the part of law enforcement officials. Civil forfeiture is a mechanism by which law enforcement agencies can seize property merely with a…
Educational Choice
Opening the Schoolhouse Doors
Alabama’s scholarship tax credit programs follow in the footsteps of at least six similar tax credits dating to the 1970s that give students a choice of public, private or religious schools, demonstrating that scholarship tax…