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Author: Raphael, Steven
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Holzer, Harry J.
Raphael, Steven
Stoll, Michael A.
Employment Barriers Facing Ex-Offenders
Discussion Paper of The Urban Institute Reentry Roundtable, May 19-20, 2003.
Also: http://www.urban.org/uploadedPDF/410855_holzer.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Urban Institute
Keyword(s): Employment; Incarceration/Jail; Labor Force Participation; Labor Market Studies, Geographic

Over 600,000 people are now being released from prisons each year. Many suffer from a variety of serious difficulties as they attempt to reenter society. Among the most challenging situations they face is that of reentry into the labor market. Employment rates and earnings of exoffenders are low by almost any standard—though in most cases they were fairly low even before these (mostly) men were incarcerated. Low employment rates seem closely related to the very high recidivism rates observed among those released from prison.

Why are the employment and earnings of ex-offenders so low? What barriers do they face in gaining employment and in achieving earnings that are sufficient to live on independently? To what extent are these barriers based on their own characteristics and attitudes, as opposed to those of employers? Are there policies that are likely to reduce these barriers, and thereby improve employment and earnings among ex-offenders?

We review these issues in this paper. We begin by reviewing some evidence on the employment and earnings of ex-offenders. We then consider the barriers that appear to limit their employment opportunities—first on the supply side (i.e., their own characteristics and attitudes), and then on the demand side (i.e., those of employers) of the labor market. We also consider some potentially positive factors that will influence the employment prospects of ex-offenders over the next few decades—particularly, the growing tightness of the labor market that most economists expect in the future due to the impending retirements of the “baby boomers” generation. Finally, we review a range of policies that might reduce some of the barriers faced by ex-offenders in the labor market.

Bibliography Citation
Holzer, Harry J., Steven Raphael and Michael A. Stoll. "Employment Barriers Facing Ex-Offenders." Discussion Paper of The Urban Institute Reentry Roundtable, May 19-20, 2003.
2. Raphael, Steven
Early Incarceration Spells and the Transition to Adulthood
Presented: New York, NY, MacArthur Foundation, Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood, "Conference on the Economics of the Transition to Adulthood", January 2006.
Also: http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~raphael/Raphael%20January%202006.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: MacArthur Foundation
Keyword(s): Crime; Incarceration/Jail; Marriage; Punishment, Criminal; Transition, Adulthood; Wages, Youth; Work Experience; Work Hours/Schedule

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper assesses the effects of having served time on conventional measures of the transition to adulthood. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) covering the period from 1979 through 1996, I test for an empirical relationship between prior jail or prison time (measured as having been interviewed for the survey while incarcerated) and four conventional markers of adult transition: current residence with ones parents, never having been married, the proportion of the survey year employed, and hourly earnings. A simple comparison of the four measures of adulthood over time reveal large differences between youth that have ever served time and youth who have not, with those who have served time performing poorly on all measures. Moreover, in a series of panel regression models, I document strong within-person correlations between having prior prison time and each of these outcome measures. For example, a comparison of average annual weeks worked for someone that eventually goes to prison reveals a significant and sizable pre-post incarceration decline in weeks worked relative to the time path of weeks worked among those who never go. Similar patterns are observed for living with ones parents, never having been married, and hourly earnings. Restricting the sample to youth who eventually serve time (a la Western (2002)) attenuates many of these empirical estimates. Nonetheless, there are sizable estimated effects of prior incarceration on the likelihood that one has never been married and annual weeks worked, despite the stringency of the empirical test and the likely downward bias associated with measurement error.
Bibliography Citation
Raphael, Steven. "Early Incarceration Spells and the Transition to Adulthood." Presented: New York, NY, MacArthur Foundation, Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood, "Conference on the Economics of the Transition to Adulthood", January 2006.
3. Raphael, Steven
Early Incarceration Spells and the Transition to Adulthood
In: The Price of Independence: The Economics of Early Adulthood. S. Danziger, and C. Rouse, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Crime; Earnings; Incarceration/Jail; Marriage; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Punishment, Criminal; Transition, Adulthood; Wages, Youth; Work Experience; Work Hours/Schedule

In this chapter I explore the effect of having served time on conventional measures of the transition to adulthood. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) from 1979 through 1996, I test for a connection between prior jail or prison time (measured as having been interviewed for the survey while incarcerated) and four conventional markers of adult transition: current residence with ones parents, never having been married, the proportion of the survey year employed, and hourly earnings.
Bibliography Citation
Raphael, Steven. "Early Incarceration Spells and the Transition to Adulthood" In: The Price of Independence: The Economics of Early Adulthood. S. Danziger, and C. Rouse, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007