Crime, Compulsory Schooling Laws and Education

Brian Bell, Rui Costa and Stephen Machin

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Do compulsory schooling laws reduce crime? Previous evidence for the U.S. from the 1960s and 1970s suggests they do, primarily working through their effect on educational attainment to generate a causal impact on crime. In this paper, we consider whether more recent experience replicates this. There are two key findings. First, there is a strong and consistent negative effect on crime from stricter compulsory schooling laws. Second, there is a weaker and sometimes non-existent link between such laws and educational attainment. As a result, credible causal estimates of the education-crime relationship cannot in general be identified for the more recent period, though they can for some groups with lower education levels (in particular, for blacks).

Keywords: Crime; education; compulsory schooling laws (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-law and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Crime, compulsory schooling laws and education (2016)
Working Paper: Crime, compulsory schooling laws and education (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1374

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