Abstract
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the short run impact of the weapons buy-back program on the incidence of firearms-related deaths in the Paraná State, Brazil. In Paraná, the campaign started six months before the national buy-back program, so it was possible to use differences-in-differences estimators. The treatment group was composed by Paraná's counties and the control group was composed by counties of other Brazilian states, limited with propensity score matching techniques. As in other countries that adopted the same kind of policy, there was no impact on firearms-related deaths in the first 6 months of the program. Therefore, at least in the short run, these policies do not contribute to firearms crimes reduction.
Keywords
Buy-back; Evaluation; Public policies; Firearms-related death; Disarmament