The Impact of Criminal Financial Sanctions: A Multi-State Analysis of Survey and Administrative Data /
Finlay, Keith.
The Impact of Criminal Financial Sanctions: A Multi-State Analysis of Survey and Administrative Data / Keith Finlay, Matthew Gross, Carl Lieberman, Elizabeth Luh, Michael G. Mueller-Smith. - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023. - 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white); - NBER working paper series no. w31581 . - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31581. .
August 2023.
We estimate the impact of financial sanctions in the U.S. criminal justice system using nine distinct natural experiments across five states. These regression discontinuity designs capture a range of enforcement levels ($17-$6,000) and institutional environments, providing robust causal evidence and external validity. We leverage survey and administrative data to consider a variety of short and long-term outcomes including employment, recidivism, household expenditures, spousal spillovers, and other self-reported measures of well-being. We find consistent, robust evidence of precise null effects on the population, including ruling out long-run impacts larger than -$347-$168 in annual earnings and -0.002-0.01 in annual convictions.
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
State and Local Budget and Expenditures
Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity
Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
The Impact of Criminal Financial Sanctions: A Multi-State Analysis of Survey and Administrative Data / Keith Finlay, Matthew Gross, Carl Lieberman, Elizabeth Luh, Michael G. Mueller-Smith. - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023. - 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white); - NBER working paper series no. w31581 . - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31581. .
August 2023.
We estimate the impact of financial sanctions in the U.S. criminal justice system using nine distinct natural experiments across five states. These regression discontinuity designs capture a range of enforcement levels ($17-$6,000) and institutional environments, providing robust causal evidence and external validity. We leverage survey and administrative data to consider a variety of short and long-term outcomes including employment, recidivism, household expenditures, spousal spillovers, and other self-reported measures of well-being. We find consistent, robust evidence of precise null effects on the population, including ruling out long-run impacts larger than -$347-$168 in annual earnings and -0.002-0.01 in annual convictions.
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
State and Local Budget and Expenditures
Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity
Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law