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Title: Crime, Compulsory Schooling Laws and Education

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: Do compulsory schooling laws reduce crime? Previous evidence for the U.S. from the 1960s and 1970s suggests they do, primarily working through their effect on educational attainment to generate a causal impact on crime. In this paper, we consider whether more recent experience replicates this. There are two key findings. First, there is a strong and consistent negative effect on crime from stricter compulsory schooling laws. Second, there is a weaker and sometimes non-existent link between such laws and educational attainment. As a result, credible causal estimates of the education-crime relationship cannot in general be identified for the more recent period, though they can for some groups with lower education levels (in particular, for blacks).

Url: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1374.pdf

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Authors: Bell, Brian; Costa, Rui; Machin, Stephen

Series Title: CEP Discussion Paper

Publication Number: 1374

Institution: Centre for Economic Performance

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Publisher Location: London

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Crime and Deviance, Education

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