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Project

An Economic Perspective on the Role of Family Structure and Education as Determinants of Crime

This research project employs quasi-experimental methods on administrative population data to investigate whether family structure and education have a causal impact on the children’s criminal outcomes. Within this broad research agenda, contributions are made in four specific research topics. I first use family fixed effects and multiple births as an instrument to estimate whether birth order and family size causally influence children’s propensity to engage in crime. Next, I employ coarsened exact matching and a bounding analysis to explore whether children raised in same-sex families are more likely to engage in crime than children raised in different-sex families. I then consider education as a potential determinant of crime using regression discontinuity design. By comparing criminal outcomes of students who barely passed and barely failed standardized exit exams in the Netherlands, I estimate the effect of high school dropout on crime. These students have similar levels of human capital but different diploma status. Finally, I investigate the effect of a school track on crime. By observing lists of students' high school preferences in Finland, I compare criminal outcomes of students who barely failed to enrol into the general track (and instead enrolled into the vocational track) with the outcomes of students who barely succeeded to enrol. These students have similar levels of human capital but are enrolled in a different track.

Date:1 Oct 2020 →  30 Jun 2021
Keywords:Determinants of Crime, Causal Inference, Administrative Population Data
Disciplines:Cultural economics, economic sociology, economic anthropology, Causes and prevention of crime