Code for: The Impact of Criminal Financial Sanctions: A Multi-State Analysis of Survey and Administrative Data

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Keith Finlay, U.S. Census Bureau; Matthew Gross, New York Mets; Carl Lieberman, U.S. Census Bureau; Elizabeth Luh, University of Michigan; Michael Mueller-Smith, University of Michigan

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
01_dataprep			01/30/2024 07:43:PM
02_tables			01/30/2024 07:43:PM
03_figures			01/30/2024 07:43:PM
FL			01/30/2024 07:43:PM
MI			01/30/2024 07:44:PM
MIDRF			01/30/2024 07:44:PM
NC			01/30/2024 07:44:PM
TX			01/30/2024 07:44:PM
TXDRF			01/30/2024 07:44:PM
WI			01/30/2024 07:44:PM

Project Citation:

Finlay, Keith, Gross, Matthew, Lieberman, Carl, Luh, Elizabeth, and Mueller-Smith, Michael. Code for: The Impact of Criminal Financial Sanctions: A Multi-State Analysis of Survey and Administrative Data. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-10-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E198034V1

Project Description

Summary: We estimate the impact of financial sanctions in the U.S. criminal justice system leveraging nine natural experiments in a regression discontinuity design framework across a diverse range of enforcement levels ($17–$6,000) and institutional environments. We leverage survey and administrative data to consider a variety of short and long-term outcomes including employment, recidivism, household expenditures, and other self-reported measures of well-being. We find robust evidence of precise null effects, including ruling out long-run impacts larger than -$391–$142 in annual earnings and -0.001–0.01 in annual convictions, with no corresponding payment increases despite salient and heterogeneous enforcement mechanisms.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: criminal justice policy; fines; deterrence; labor market outcomes

JEL Classification:
      H72 State and Local Budget and Expenditures
      J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
      K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

Geographic Coverage: Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin

Time Period(s): 2001 – 2020

Data Type(s): program source code

Methodology

Unit(s) of Observation: individual

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-10-23]

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DDI 2.5

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