The Effect of Employment Frictions on Crime: Theory and Estimation

I investigate how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. An on-the-job search model with crime is used to model criminal behavior, derive the estimation method and analyze several policies including a job placement program. The results show the unemployed are incarcerated twice as fast as the employed and take on average four months to find a job. Combining these results, it is demonstrated that reducing the average unemployment spell of criminals by two months reduces crime and recidivism by more than five percent.crime, search, unemployment, wage dispersion

Crime Networks with Bargaining and Build Frictions

How does the timing, targets and types of anti-crime policies affect a network when criminal retailers search sequentially for wholesalers and crime opportunities? Given the illicit nature of crime, I analyze a non-competitive market where players bargain over the surplus. In such a market, some anti-crime policies distort revenue sharing, reduce matching frictions and increase market activity or crime. As an application, the model provides a new perspective on why the U.S. cocaine market saw rising consumption after the introduction of the “War on Drugs.”crime, networks, search, matching

Efficient Labor Force Participation with Search and Bargaining

A fixed wage is inefficient in a standard search model when workers endogenously separate from employment. We derive an efficient employment contract that involves agents paying a hiring fee (or bond) upon the formation of a match. We estimate the fixed wage and efficient contract assuming the hiring fee is unobservable, and find evidence to reject the efficient contract in favor of the fixed wage rule. A counterfactual experiment reveals the current level of labor force participation to be 9% below the efficient level, and a structural shift to the efficient contract improves welfare by nearly 4%.labor supply, unemployment, matching, efficiency wages

Crime Networks with Bargaining and Build Frictions

How does the timing, targets and types of anti-crime policies affect a network when criminal retailers search sequentially for wholesalers and crime opportunities? Given the illicit nature of crime, I analyze a non-competitive market where players bargain over the surplus. In such a market, some anti-crime policies distort revenue sharing, reduce matching frictions and increase market activity or crime. As an application, the model provides a new perspective on why the U.S. cocaine market saw rising consumption after the introduction of the “War on Drugs.

The Effect of Employment Frictions on Crime: Theory and Estimation

I investigate how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. An on-the-job search model with crime is used to model criminal behavior, derive the estimation method and analyze several policies including a job placement program. The results show the unemployed are incarcerated twice as fast as the employed and take on average four months to find a job. Combining these results, it is demonstrated that reducing the average unemployment spell of criminals by two months reduces crime and recidivism by more than five percent

The Labor Market Effects of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics

The local, state, and federal governments, along with the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee, spent roughly $1.9 billion in direct costs related to planning and hosting the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. In this paper, we investigate whether these expenditures increased employment. At the state level, we find strong evidence it increased employment in leisure related industries in the short run and potentially in the long run. However, the results indicate it had no long term impact on employment in retail trade or in the overall economy.Olympics, impact analysis, mega-event, tourism

Labor Market Effects of the World Cup: A Sectoral Analysis

This paper provides an empirical examination of impact the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States on local employment. In contrast to ex ante economic impact reports that suggest large increases in employment due to the tournament, an ex post examination of employment in 9 host metropolitan areas finds no significant impact on employment from hosting World Cup games. Furthermore, an analysis of employment in specific sectors of the economy finds no impact from hosting games on employment in the leisure and hospitality and professional and business services sectors but a statistically significant negative impact on employment in the retail trade sector.World Cup, soccer, impact analysis, mega-event, tourism

Hail to the Chief: Assessing the Economic Impact of Presidential Inaugurations on the Washington, D.C. Local Economy

While presidential inaugurations routinely attract hundreds of thousands or more visitors to Washington, D.C. for the quadrennial celebration, our examination of employment from the Current Employment Statistics survey from 1939 to the present and both employment and unemployment from the Current Population Survey from 1977 to the present finds no noticeable effect on either variable from the event. The residents of D.C. should not expect the inauguration to make them any richer, and the city should not count on any economic benefits generated by the event to fully pay for the significant costs of hosting it.Presidential Inauguration, impact analysis, mega-event, tourism

Labor Market Effects of the World Cup: A Sectoral Analysis

This paper provides an empirical examination of impact the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States on local employment. In contrast to ex ante economic impact reports that suggest large increases in employment due to the tournament, an ex post examination of employment in 9 host metropolitan areas finds no significant impact on employment from hosting World Cup games. Furthermore, an analysis of employment in specific sectors of the economy finds no impact from hosting games on employment in the leisure and hospitality and professional and business services sectors but a statistically significant negative impact on employment in the retail trade sector.World Cup, soccer, impact analysis, mega-event, tourism

The Labor Market Effects of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics

Olympics, impact analysis, mega-event, tourism