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Author: Chan, Stacey
Resulting in 2 citations.
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Beauchamp, Andrew Chan, Stacey |
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The Minimum Wage and Crime B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 14,3 (2014): 1213-1235. Also: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0130 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG Keyword(s): Crime; Legislation; Minimum Wage; State-Level Data/Policy Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Does crime respond to changes in the minimum wage? A growing body of empirical evidence indicates that increases in the minimum wage have a displacement effect on low-skilled workers. Economic reasoning provides the possibility that disemployment may cause youth to substitute from legal work to crime. However, there is also the countervailing effect of a higher wage raising the opportunity cost of crime for those who remain employed. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to measure the effect of increases in the minimum wage on self-reported criminal activity and examine employment-crime substitution. Exploiting changes in state and federal minimum wage laws from 1997 to 2010, we find that workers who are affected by a change in the minimum wage are more likely to commit crime, become idle, and lose employment. Individuals experiencing a binding minimum wage change were more likely to commit crime and work only part time. Analyzing heterogeneity shows those with past criminal connections are especially likely to see decreased employment and increased crime following a policy change, suggesting that reduced employment effects dominate any wage effects. The findings have implications for policy regarding both the low-wage labor market and efforts to deter criminal activity. |
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Bibliography Citation
Beauchamp, Andrew and Stacey Chan. "The Minimum Wage and Crime." B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 14,3 (2014): 1213-1235.
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| 2. |
Chan, Stacey |
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Unintended Policy Effects and Youth Crime Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Boston College, 2013. Also: https://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:101345 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Boston College Keyword(s): Crime; Geocoded Data; Minimum Wage; State-Level Data/Policy Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The second chapter (co-authored with Drew Beauchamp) investigates how increases in the minimum wage impact the criminal behavior of affected workers. A growing body of empirical evidence indicates that increases in the minimum wage have a displacement effect on low-skilled workers. We use detailed panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to examine the effect of increases in the minimum wage on self-reported criminal activity and test the employment-crime substitution hypothesis. Exploiting changes in state and federal minimum wage laws from 1997 to 2010, we find that workers who are affected by a change in the minimum wage are more likely to become idle and unemployed. Further, there is an increase of property theft among both the unemployed and employed, suggesting that substitution between employment and crime is stronger than the income effect. These findings have implications for policy regarding both the low-wage labor market and criminal activity. |
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Bibliography Citation
Chan, Stacey. Unintended Policy Effects and Youth Crime. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Boston College, 2013.. |