Separating state dependence, experience, and heterogeneity in a model of youth crime and education

Maria Antonella Mancino, Salvador Navarro and David Rivers

Economics of Education Review, 2016, vol. 54, issue C, 274-305

Abstract: We study the determinants of youth crime using a dynamic discrete choice model of crime and education. We allow past education and criminal activities to affect current crime and educational decisions. We take advantage of a rich panel dataset on serious juvenile offenders, the Pathways to Desistance. Using a series of psychometric tests, we estimate a model of cognitive and social/emotional skills which feed into the crime and education model. This allows us to separately identify the roles of state dependence, returns to experience, and heterogeneity in driving crime and enrollment decisions among youth. We find small effects of experience and stronger evidence of state dependence and heterogeneity for crime and schooling. We provide evidence that, as a consequence, policies that affect individual heterogeneity (e.g., social/emotional skills), and those that temporarily keep youth away from crime, can have important and lasting effects even if criminal experience has already accumulated.

Keywords: Crime; Education; Youth; Dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I26 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Separating State Dependence, Experience, and Heterogeneity in a Model of Youth Crime and Education (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:274-305

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.07.005

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