The Location of Women's Prisons and the Deterrence Effect of 'Harder' Time

Most studies of the deterrence effect of incarceration treat a year in prison as having the same deterrence effect regardless of the conditions of incarceration. In contrast, we estimate both the impact of custody rate and prison location changes on female crime rates. We take advantage of the natural experiment created by recent expansions of the female penal system; many states witnessed a rapid doubling of prison capacity. The physical expansion of the penal system decreased the distance to prisons for some cities while increasing it for others. Movement in both directions is particularly helpful because it ensures that we are not identifying relationships off coincidental one-directional trends. Our results suggest that prison location has a sizable deterrence effect. Increasing the average distance to a woman’s prison by 40 miles reduces the female violent crime rate by approximately 7 percent.

Cyclic Length in the Tame Brauer Group of the Function Field of a p-Adic Curve

Let $F$ be the function field of a smooth curve over the $p$-adic number field \Q_p. We show that for each prime-to-$p$ number $n$ the $n$-torsion subgroup \H^2(F,\mu_n)={}_n\Br(F) is generated by $\Z/n$-cyclic classes; in fact the $\Z/n$-length is equal to two. It follows that the Brauer dimension of $F$ is two (first proved in \cite{Sa97}), and any $F$-division algebra of period $n$ and index $n^2$ is decomposable

EVALUATING MEASURES TO IMPROVE AGRICULTURAL INPUT USE

This paper provides guidelines to assist policymakers and analysts in (1) identifying promising public and private actions for promoting agricultural intensification by improving the availability and profitability of agricultural inputs; and (2) evaluating the relative costs and benefits of alternative actions. The guidelines are illustrated by reference to a study of phosphate fertilizer promotion in Mali originally conducted by IFDC researchers.Farm Management,

Does Single Parenthood Increase the Probability of Teenage Promiscuity, Drug Use, and Crime? Evidence from Divorce Law Changes

It has long since been established that children raised by single parents are more likely to become sexually active, commit illegal acts, and use illegal drugs at young ages. What has not been determined is whether or not there is a causal effect associated with the disintegration of the family. Would these children have been more likely to participate in ‘deviant’ behavior even if their family structure had remained intact? This study provides evidence in favor of a negative causal impact of single-parent status. Using state-level divorce law changes to instrument for years that the biological father lives in the household, we find that youth who spend part of their childhood/youth living in a household that does not include their biological father are more likely to smoke regularly, become sexually active, and be convicted of a crime.Family Structure; Marital Dissolution; Youth Outcomes

School Size and the Distribution of Test Scores

After forty years of school consolidation, the preponderance of the evidence, including the results presented in this paper, suggest that the race to reap returns to scale and specialization in education may have come at a high price. This paper uses newly available STAR test score data from California to explore the relationship between school size and the distribution of test scores across elementary, middle, and high schools. We find that school size has a statistically significant and economically large impact on school performance. For example, the probability that an average suburban high school is dominated by low scorers rises from 47% to 71% as the school grows from 200 to 800 students per grade.school size, test scores