Optimising Criminal Behaviour and the Disutility of Prison

Giovanni Mastrobuoni () and David Rivers

The Economic Journal, 2019, vol. 129, issue 619, 1364-1399

Abstract: We use rich microdata on bank robberies to estimate individual-level disutilities of imprisonment. The identification rests on the money versus apprehension trade-off that robbers face inside the bank when deciding whether to leave or collect money for an additional minute. The distribution of the disutility of prison is not degenerate, generating heterogeneity in behaviour. Our results show that unobserved heterogeneity in robber ability is important for explaining outcomes in terms of haul and arrest. Furthermore, higher ability robbers are found to have larger disutilities, suggesting that increased sentence lengths might effectively target these more harmful criminals.

Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Optimizing Criminal Behaviour and the Disutility of Prison (2018)
Working Paper: Optimizing Criminal Behavior and the Disutility of Prison (2017)
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