More Schooling, Less Youth Crime? Learning from an Earthquake in Japan

Yu Aoki ()
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Yu Aoki: University of Aberdeen

No 8619, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper aims to identify the causal effect of schooling on youth crime. To identify the causal effect, I use the policy interventions that occurred after the Kobe earthquake that hit Japan in 1995 as a natural experiment inducing exogenous variation in schooling. Based on a comparison of the arrest rates between municipalities exposed to similar degrees of earthquake damage but with and without the policy interventions, I find that a higher high school participation rate reduces juvenile arrest rates for violent crime but not for property crime. The estimates of social benefits show that it is less expensive to reach a target level of social benefits by improving schooling than by strengthening the police force.

Keywords: schooling; youth crime; social externality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I28 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-law and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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