Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/106555 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8619
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper aims to identify the causal effect of schooling on youth crime. To identify the causal effect, I use the policy interventions that occurred after the Kobe earthquake that hit Japan in 1995 as a natural experiment inducing exogenous variation in schooling. Based on a comparison of the arrest rates between municipalities exposed to similar degrees of earthquake damage but with and without the policy interventions, I find that a higher high school participation rate reduces juvenile arrest rates for violent crime but not for property crime. The estimates of social benefits show that it is less expensive to reach a target level of social benefits by improving schooling than by strengthening the police force.
Subjects: 
schooling
youth crime
social externality
JEL: 
H52
I28
K42
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
627.37 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.