Permanent School Closures and Crime: Evidence from Scotland

Daniel Borbely, Markus Gehrsitz (), Stuart McIntyre () and Gennaro Rossi ()
Additional contact information
Markus Gehrsitz: Fraser of Allander Institute, Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany
Stuart McIntyre: Fraser of Allander Institute, Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Gennaro Rossi: Department of Economics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DT, UK

No 2023021, Working Papers from The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics

Abstract: In this article we study the effects of permanent school closures on crime. We leverage the closure of over 300 schools in Scotland between the school years 2006/07 and 2018/19, and employ a staggered difference-in-differences design on a matched sample. We find that neighbourhoods affected by school closures experience a reduction in crime of about 9% of a standard deviation, relative to areas where schools remained open. This effect is mainly driven by a reduction in violent and property crimes. We provide evidence on several mechanisms explaining the negative crime effect, such as changes in neighbourhood composition and reductions in school-level segregation.

Keywords: Crime; School Closures; Neighbourhoods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 K42 R20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
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https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/research/serps First version, October 13 2023 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Permanent School Closures and Crime: Evidence from Scotland (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:shf:wpaper:2023021

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