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.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Bonn |
Publisher | IZA Discussion Paper |
Pages | 1 - 39 |
Number of pages | 39 |
Volume | 8619 |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2014 |
Keywords
- schooling
- youth crime
- social externality