Labor Market Impacts of Reducing Felony Convictions

Amanda Agan (), Andrew Garin, Dmitri Koustas (), Alexandre Mas and Crystal S. Yang ()
Additional contact information
Amanda Agan: Cornell University
Dmitri Koustas: University of Chicago
Crystal S. Yang: Harvard University

No 16528, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the labor market impacts of retroactively reducing felonies to misdemeanors in San Joaquin County, CA, where criminal justice agencies implemented Proposition 47 reductions in a quasi-random order, without requiring input or action from affected individuals. Linking records of reductions to administrative tax data, we find employment benefits for individuals who (likely) requested their reduction, consistent with selection, but no benefits among the larger subset of individuals whose records were reduced proactively. A field experiment notifying a subset of individuals about their proactive reduction also shows null results, implying that lack of awareness is unlikely to explain our findings.

Keywords: labor markets; crime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J0 K0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lab and nep-law
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Published - published in: American Economic Review, 2024, 6 (3), 341–358

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Labor Market Impacts of Reducing Felony Convictions (2024)
Working Paper: Labor Market Impacts of Reducing Felony Convictions (2023)
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