Why Does Education Reduce Crime?

Brian Bell, Rui Costa and Stephen Machin

Journal of Political Economy, 2022, vol. 130, issue 3, 732 - 765

Abstract: We provide a unifying empirical framework to study why crime reductions occurred due to a sequence of state-level dropout age reforms enacted between 1980 and 2010 in the United States. Because the reforms changed the shape of crime-age profiles, they generate both a short-term incapacitation effect and a more sustained crime-reducing effect. In contrast to previous research looking at earlier US education reforms, we find that reform-induced crime reduction does not arise primarily from education improvements. Decomposing short- and long-run effects, the observed longer-run effect for the post-1980 education reforms is primarily attributed to dynamic incapacitation.

Date: 2022
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Related works:
Working Paper: Why does education reduce crime? (2018)
Working Paper: Why Does Education Reduce Crime? (2018)
Working Paper: Why does education reduce crime? (2018)
Working Paper: Why Does Education Reduce Crime? (2018)
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