Education and Crime over the Life Cycle

We compare two large-scale policy interventions aimed at reducing crime: subsidizing high school completion and increasing the length of prison sentences. To this purpose we use a life-cycle model with endogenous education and crime choices. We apply the model to property crime and calibrate it to U...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Review of economic studies 2014-10, Vol.81 (4 (289)), p.1484-1517
Main Authors: FELLA, GIULIO, GALLIPOLI, GIOVANNI
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
Crime in schools
Criminal justice
Criminals
Economic models
Educational attainment
Equilibrium
Prisons
Property crimes
Public policy
School dropouts
Secondary schools
Subsidies
United States
Victimization rates
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Summary:We compare two large-scale policy interventions aimed at reducing crime: subsidizing high school completion and increasing the length of prison sentences. To this purpose we use a life-cycle model with endogenous education and crime choices. We apply the model to property crime and calibrate it to U.S. data. We find that targeting crime reductions through increases in high school graduation rates entails large efficiency and welfare gains. These gains are absent if the same crime reduction is achieved by increasing the length of sentences. We also find that general equilibrium effects explain roughly one half of the reduction in crime from subsidizing high school.
ISSN:0034-6527
1467-937X
DOI:10.1093/restud/rdu014