IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cgd/wpaper/520.html

Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Gaurav Khanna

    (University of California - San Diego)

  • Carlos Medina

    (Banco de la Republica de Colombia)

  • Anant Nyshadham

    (University of Michigan
    NBER)

  • Jorge Tamayo

    (Harvard Business School)

Abstract

Canonical models of crime emphasize economic incentive. Yet, causal evidence of sorting into criminal occupations in response to individual-level variation in incentives is limited. We link administrative socioeconomic microdata with the universe of arrests in Medellín over a decade. We exploit exogenous variation in formal-sector employment around a socioeconomic-score cutoff, below which individuals receive benefits if not formally employed, to test whether a higher cost to formal-sector employment induces crime. Regression discontinuity estimates show this policy generated reductions in formal-sector employment and a corresponding spike in organized crime, but no effects on crimes of impulse or opportunity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaurav Khanna & Carlos Medina & Anant Nyshadham & Jorge Tamayo, 2019. "Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia," Working Papers 520, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/formal-employment-and-organized-crime-regression-discontinuity-evidence-colombia
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gaurav Khanna & Carlos Medina & Anant Nyshadham & Christian Posso & Jorge Tamayo, 2021. "Job Loss, Credit, and Crime in Colombia," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 97-114, March.
    2. Manea, Roxana Elena & Piraino, Patrizio & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Sofía Fernández Guerrico, 2023. "Trade Shocks, Population Growth, and Migration," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/357236, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Robinson,James Alan & Vostroknutov,Alexander & Vostroknutova,Ekaterina, 2023. "Endogenous Institutions and Economic Policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10600, The World Bank.
    5. Garg, Teevrat & McCord, Gordon C. & Montfort, Aleister, 2020. "Can Social Protection Reduce Environmental Damages?," IZA Discussion Papers 13247, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Garg, Teevrat & McCord, Gordon C. & Montfort, Aleister, 2025. "Can social protection reduce damages from higher temperatures?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. Christopher Blattman & Gustavo Duncan & Benjamin Lessing & Santiago Tobón, 2025. "Gang Rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(3), pages 1497-1531.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Publications Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cgdevus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.