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The Effects of Youth Employment on Crime: Evidence from New York City Lotteries

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  • Judd B. Kessler
  • Sarah Tahamont
  • Alexander Gelber
  • Adam Isen

Abstract

Recent policy discussions have proposed government‐guaranteed jobs, including for youth. One key potential benefit of youth employment is a reduction in criminal justice contact. Prior work on summer youth employment programs has documented little‐to‐no effect of the program on crime during the program but has found decreases in violent and other serious crimes among “at‐risk” youth in the year or two after the program. We add to this picture by studying randomized lotteries for access to the New York City Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the largest such program in the United States. We link SYEP data to New York State criminal records data to investigate outcomes of 163,447 youth who participated in a SYEP lottery between 2005 and 2008. We find evidence that SYEP participation decreases arrests and convictions during the program summer, effects that are driven by the small fraction (3 percent) of SYEP youth who are at‐risk, as defined by having been arrested before the start of the program. We conclude that an important benefit of SYEPs is the contemporaneous effect during the program summer and that the effect is concentrated among individuals with prior contact with the criminal justice system.

Suggested Citation

  • Judd B. Kessler & Sarah Tahamont & Alexander Gelber & Adam Isen, 2022. "The Effects of Youth Employment on Crime: Evidence from New York City Lotteries," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 710-730, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:41:y:2022:i:3:p:710-730
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.22393
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jonathan M.V. Davis & Sara B. Heller, 2020. "Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 664-677, October.
    2. Brian A. Jacob & Lars Lefgren, 2003. "Are Idle Hands the Devil's Workshop? Incapacitation, Concentration, and Juvenile Crime," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1560-1577, December.
    3. Grogger, Jeff, 1998. "Market Wages and Youth Crime," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 756-791, October.
    4. Peter Z. Schochet & John Burghardt & Sheena McConnell, 2008. "Does Job Corps Work? Impact Findings from the National Job Corps Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1864-1886, December.
    5. Alexander Gelber & Adam Isen & Judd B. Kessler, 2016. "The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Lotteries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 423-460.
    6. repec:mpr:mprres:6097 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Alicia Sasser Modestino, 2019. "How Do Summer Youth Employment Programs Improve Criminal Justice Outcomes, and for Whom?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 600-628, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cepni, Aliye B. & Sloan, John & Nadeem, Saad & White III, James W. & Finnegan, Olivia & Beets, Michael & Armstrong, Bridget & Tabak, Rachel G. & Lea III, Charles H. & Weaver, R. Glenn, 2025. "Summer youth work programs for health promotion: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Modestino, Alicia Sasser & Marks, Mindy & Hoover, Hanna & Pandit, Hitanshu, 2025. "Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Examining Efficiency and Equity in Designing Summer Youth Employment Programs," IZA Discussion Papers 17737, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Hjalmarsson, Randi & Machin, Stephen & Pinotti, Paolo, 2024. "Crime and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    4. Daniel Muir & Cristiana Orlando & Becci Newton, 2024. "Impact of summer programmes on the outcomes of disadvantaged or ‘at risk’ young people: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), June.

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