Effects of the Alabama HB 56 Immigration Law on Crime: A Synthetic Control Approach

Yinjuejie Zhang, Marco Palma () and Zhicheng Xu

No 229780, 2016 Annual Meeting, February 6-9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas from Southern Agricultural Economics Association

Abstract: The act of Alabama HB 56, passed in 2011 is considered to be the strictest anti-illegal immigration bill in the United States. This paper evaluates the impact of this policy on crime, by using the synthetic control method to create a counterfactual Alabama. The results provide suggestive evidence of heterogeneous causal effects of Alabama HB 56 on crime. Compared to the synthetic group, the violent crime rate increased as a response to Alabama HB 56, while there was no significant change in property crime rate after the act. A placebo test was also performed to demonstrate the robustness of the results.

Keywords: Labor and Human Capital; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2016-02-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law, nep-mig and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:saea16:229780

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.229780

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