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Crime, Financial Shock, Employee Ownership

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PDT)

Marriott Marquis, Cardiff
Hosted By: National Economic Association
  • Chair: Olugbenga Ajilore, Center for American Progress

Local Financial Shocks and Its Effect on Crime

Salvador Contreras
,
University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley
Amit Ghosh
,
Illinois Wesleyan University

Abstract

Using bank failures at the county level as a proxy for local credit market frictions, this paper examines its effect on youth arrests by race for the period 1999-2015. Local banking market duress can reduce economic opportunities, lower the opportunity cost of engaging in unlawful activities, and thereby leading to more arrests. We find white youth (including Hispanics) violent crime, property crime, petty delinquency, and drug crimes arrests increase on average by 1, 4, 5, and 4, respectively, following a bank failure. Black youth violent crime and petty delinquency arrests on average increase by 1 and 3, respectively. However, we find weak and inconsistent effects for Native American and Asian youths. We find male youth violent crime and property crime increase by 1 and 2, respectively. Female arrests are found to be unaffected. Exploring channels of transmission, we find that employment in the limited-service restaurants sector falls on average by 600 following a bank failure. Our results suggest that the effect of bank failures on white youth crime is driven by a decrease in economic opportunity and the smaller effects on black youth reflects historically scarce economic opportunities.

Crime, Employment, and Broad Based Employee Ownership Opportunities

Robynn Cox
,
University of Southern California

Abstract

The role of broad based employee ownership in general, and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) in particular, in prisoner reentry is an understudied area. Even though it is widely believed that a good job (e.g., good wages) is necessary to successfully transition individuals from confinement back into society, a preliminary search of the literature revealed no research directly measuring the effect of ESOP employment on criminal behavior. This research seeks to fill this gap in the literature investigating how ESOPs impact criminal participation as measured by arrests, conviction, and incarceration among formerly incarcerated individuals. Using the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth I find that formerly incarcerated individuals with ESOP employment are less likely to be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated. This effect seems to operate through improvement in labor market outcomes: formerly incarcerated ESOP employees earn approximately 25% more in annual income and work roughly 8.8% more hours per week than formerly incarcerated workers who are not employed by an ESOP firm.

Media Influences on Entrepreneurship and Innovation

David T. Robinson
,
Duke University
Angelino C. G. Viceisza
,
Spelman College and NBER

Abstract

Business leaders and policy makers stress the importance of stimulating entrepreneurial activity for the continued vitality of the US economy, but many policies to promote entrepreneurship (including business training programs) have had mixed effectiveness. One reason is the lack of exposure to the processes of innovation and starting a new firm.
This research uses the idea that television is often credited for impacting socio-economic outcomes and attitudes, to assess if a televised business plan competition – the ABC show Shark Tank – can shift opinions about the willingness and desirability of starting a business.
We measure exposure to the show by means of Nielsen ratings. Our outcomes are from a range of
sources including the US Small Business Administration (i.e. counseling and training counts), National Establishment Time Series (NETS – i.e. counts of new businesses), and the US Patent and Trademark Office (i.e. patent application counts).

Preliminary analysis based on within-market variation in the show's popularity over time suggests that exposure to Shark Tank may indeed impact entrepreneurial activity. A first cut of the data suggests that whether or not the show has a significant impact on racial/ethnic minorities depends on the ratings measure in question.

Our next steps include: (1) assessing robustness of these findings to alternative specifications (e.g. including additional demographic controls); (2) further exploring heterogeneous impacts by subgroups such as women, minorities, and income brackets; and (3) tracing mechanisms by attempting to link episode content with specific outcomes by subgroups.

Disparities in Homeownership and Mortgage Lending: Understanding the American Indian Experience from 2005-2017.

Jeffrey Burnette
,
Rochester Institute of Technology
Javier Espinosa
,
Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract

We document recent trends in loan applications and home ownership rates for American
Indians to understand the credit market faced by American Indians from 2005 to 2017 using
data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and American Community Survey.
Results are compared to other racial groups to determine the extent that disparities in
homeownership and credit access are widening over this period. Lastly, we analyze
homeownership and loan denial rates for American Indians before, during and after the Great
Recession to explore if credit was equally accessible for Americans Indians to mitigate hardships
incurred during the Great Recession after controlling for location.

Trends in Global Female Labor Participation: 1990-2017

Hanadi Alabaad
,
Howard University
Zhun Xu
,
Howard University

Abstract

Despite increasing women education and female political representation all over the world, the
global female labor force participation rate saw a gradual but continuous decline since 1990. The
rate dropped from 51% to 48.8% between 1990 and 2015. A close examination reveals that China
and India have driven the declining trend, and the global average female labor participation rate
without the two economies actually had some moderate increase in the last two decades or so.
Interestingly, there is a clear regional difference in the rest of the world. Since 1990, Middle East and North Africa participation rate increased roughly by 4%, while North America approached an equivalent rate. East and South Asia have been encountered a declining trend. Based on a panel
data, we study how factors such as gender equality, declining fertility and increasing education
levels have affected the female labor force participation rate in the last three decades. We further explore the prospect of female labor participation using case studies of some countries.

The Green Books and the Geography of Segregation in Public Accommodations

Lisa Cook
,
Michigan State University
Maggie E. C. Jones
,
Michigan State University
Trevon Logan
,
Michigan State University
David Rosé
,
Michigan State University

Abstract

Jim Crow segregated African Americans and whites by law and practice. The causes and implications of the associated de jure and de facto residential segregation have received substantial attention from scholars, but there has been little empirical research on racial discrimination within public accommodations during this time period. We digitize an important historical tool created to assist African Americans in navigating both types of segregation: The Negro Motorist Green Books. We generate a novel dataset consisting of the geocoded location of over 4,000 unique businesses that served African American patrons between 1938-1964. Our preliminary analysis reveals several new facts about discrimination in public accommodations that contribute to the broader literature on racial segregation. First, the largest number of Green Book establishments were found in the North, while the South had the highest number of Green Book establishments per capita. The West had both the lowest number of establishments, as well as the lowest number per capita. Second, World War II was associated with large increases in the number of non-discriminatory public accommodations throughout the entire country, a result that is driven by counties with high WWII enlistment rates. Third, out of the Green Book establishments located in cities for which the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) drew residential security maps, the vast majority (over 60%) are located in the lowest-grade, redlined neighborhoods.
Discussant(s)
Robynn Cox
,
University of Southern California
Salvador Contreras
,
University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley
Samuel L. Myers Jr.
,
University of Minnesota
Phanindra V. Wunnava
,
Middlebury College and IZA
JEL Classifications
  • K1 - Basic Areas of Law
  • K4 - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior