Legal Status and the Criminal Activity of Immigrants

Giovanni Mastrobuoni () and Paolo Pinotti

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2, 175-206

Abstract: We exploit exogenous variation in legal status following the January 2007 European Union enlargement to estimate its effect on immigrant crime. We difference out unobserved time-varying factors by (i) comparing recidivism rates of immigrants from the "new" and "candidate" member countries; and (ii) using arrest data on foreign detainees released upon a mass clemency that occurred in Italy in August 2006. The timing of the two events allows us to setup a difference-in-differences strategy. Legal status leads to a 50 percent reduction in recidivism, and explains one-half to two-thirds of the observed differences in crime rates between legal and illegal immigrants. (JEL F22, K42, C41)

JEL-codes: C41 F22 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20140039
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (120)

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Working Paper: Legal status and the criminal activity of immigrants (2012)
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