Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia

Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge A. Tamayo

No 26203, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Canonical models of crime emphasize economic incentives. 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.

JEL-codes: J24 J46 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue, nep-lma and nep-ure
Note: DEV LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published as Gaurav Khanna & Carlos Medina & Anant Nyshadham & Jorge Tamayo & Nicolas Torres, 2023. "Formal Employment and Organised Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(654), pages 2427-2448.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w26203.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Formal Employment and Organised Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia (2023)
Working Paper: Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia (2019)
Working Paper: Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia (2019)
Working Paper: Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26203

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w26203

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().