Punishing Financial Crimes: The Impact of Prison Sentences on Defendants and Their Colleagues

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Huttunen, Kristiina; Kaila, Martti; Macdonald, David C.; Nix, Emily
• 署名单位: Aalto University; VATT Institute for Economic Research; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Glasgow; University of British Columbia; University of British Columbia Okanagan; University of Southern California
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20240121
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: misconduct

摘要

Financial crimes are costly to society but less severely punished than other nonviolent crimes. We investigate whether prison sentences reduce financial crimes. Using random assignment of judges in Finland to identify causal impacts, we find a prison sentence reduces defendant reoffending by 42.9 percentage points three years postsentencing. Given prior evidence of financial misconduct contagion, we also explore spillovers on colleagues. A prison sentence reduces the likelihood that a financial crime defendant's colleagues commit crimes by 27 percentage points, suggesting broader deterrent effects of harsher punishments, but only for fraud cases. Last, we show financial crimes are not victimless crimes. (JEL K14, K22, K41, K42)