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Youth crime and education expansion

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Author Info

  • Machin Stephen
  • Marie Olivier
  • Vujić Sunčica

    (ROA rm)

Abstract

We present new evidence on the causal impact of education on crime, by consideringa large expansion of the UK post-compulsory education system that occurred in thelate 1980s and early 1990s. The education expansion raised education levels acrossthe whole education distribution and, in particular for our analysis, at the bottom endenabling us to develop an instrumental variable strategy to study the crime-educationrelationship. At the same time as the education expansion, youth crime fell, revealinga significant cross-cohort relationship between crime and education. The causalcrime reducing effect of education is estimated to be negative and significant, andconsiderably bigger in (absolute) magnitude than ordinary least squares estimates.The education boost also significantly impacted other productivity related economicvariables (qualification attainment and wages), demonstrating that the incapacitationeffect of additional time spent in school is not the sole driver of the results.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Maastricht : ROA, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market in its series Research Memoranda with number 009.

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Date of creation: 2012
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Handle: RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012009

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Web page: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/UMPublications.htm

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Keywords: labour market entry and occupational careers;

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  1. Lance Lochner, 2004. "Education, Work, and Crime: A Human Capital Approach," NBER Working Papers 10478, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Stephen Machin & Olivier Marie & Sunčica Vujić, 2011. "The Crime Reducing Effect of Education," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 463-484, 05.
  3. Jo Blanden & Stephen Machin, 2004. "Educational Inequality and the Expansion of UK Higher Education," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(2), pages 230-249, 05.
  4. Naci H. Mocan & Bulent Unel, 2011. "Skill-biased Technological Change, Earnings of Unskilled Workers, and Crime," NBER Working Papers 17605, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Devereux, Paul J. & Hart, Robert A., 2008. "Forced to Be Rich? Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 3305, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. Tauchen, Helen & Witte, Ann Dryden & Griesinger, Harriet, 1994. "Criminal Deterrence: Revisiting the Issue with a Birth Cohort," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 399-412, August.
  7. Eric D. Gould & Bruce A. Weinberg & David B. Mustard, 2002. "Crime Rates And Local Labor Market Opportunities In The United States: 1979-1997," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 45-61, February.
  8. Steven D. Levitt & Lance Lochner, 2001. "The Determinants of Juvenile Crime," NBER Chapters, in: Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, pages 327-374 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Steve Machin & Costas Meghir, 2000. "Crime and economic incentives," IFS Working Papers W00/17, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  10. Devereux, Paul J. & Fan, Wen, 2011. "Earnings returns to the British education expansion," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1153-1166.
  11. Grogger, Jeff, 1998. "Market Wages and Youth Crime," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 756-91, October.
  12. Hjalmarsson, Randi, 2008. "Criminal justice involvement and high school completion," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 613-630, March.
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Cited by:
  1. Marc van der Steeg & Roel van Elk & Dinand Webbink, 2012. "Does intensive coaching reduce school dropout?," CPB Discussion Paper 224, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

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