Why Does Education Reduce Crime?

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Bell, Brian; Costa, Rui; Machin, Stephen
• 署名单位: University of London; King's College London; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/717895
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: regression discontinuity designs; AGE; schools; benefits; returns; MODEL; work

摘要

We provide a unifying empirical framework to study why crime reductions occurred due to a sequence of state-level dropout age reforms enacted between 1980 and 2010 in the United States. Because the reforms changed the shape of crime-age profiles, they generate both a short-term incapacitation effect and a more sustained crime-reducing effect. In contrast to previous research looking at earlier US education reforms, we find that reform-induced crime reduction does not arise primarily from education improvements. Decomposing short- and long-run effects, the observed longer-run effect for the post-1980 education reforms is primarily attributed to dynamic incapacitation.