Economics 499: The Economics of Crime, Spring 2014
Instructor: Prof. Jeremy A. Sandford
Office hours: TH 12:30-1:30pm, 335L B&E, or by appointment
Lecture:
2:00-3:15pm MW, BE 306
Homework #1, due
1/31/14
Homework #2, due 2/7/14. Readings: Drum, Kevin, 2013, "America's real criminal element: lead," January/February 2013 issue, Mother Jones, Manzi, Jim 1/10/13, "Lead and crime", National Review
Homework #3, due
4/4/14, American murder mystery, When crime pays
Schedule
Wednesday, January 15: Introduction, description of crime
trends 1960-present in the US
Bureau of Justice Statistics report on homicide trends
optional: An interview with Emily Oster
Monday, January 20: No class (MLK day)
Wednesday, January 22: Possible reasons for the 1990's
decline in US crime
reading: Levitt, Steven (2004), "Understanding why crime
fell in the 1990's: four factors that explain the decline, and six that do
not," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 163-190
Monday, January 27: Abortion and crime
reading: Donohue, John and Steven Levitt (2004), "Further evidence that legalized abortion lowered
crime," Journal of Human Resources, 39(1), 29-49
Wednesday, January 29: no class
Monday, February 3: Econometrics review: interpreting regression results and omitted variable bias
Wednesday, February 5: no class
Monday, February 10: Education as a determinant of crime
reading: Lochner, Lance and Enrico Moretti (2004), "The effect of
education on crime: evidence from prison inmates, arrests, and
self-reports,"
American Economic Review, 94(1), 155-189
Wednesday, February 12: Do police reduce crime?
Levitt, Steven (1997), "Using electoral cycles in police hiring to
estimate the effect of police on crime," American Economic Review,
87(3), 270-290
Monday, February 17: Terror alert levels as an instrument
for police hiring
reading: Klick, Jonathan and Alexander Tabarrok (2005), "Using
terror alert
levels to estimate the effect of police on crime," Journal of Law and
Economics, 48(1), 267-279
Wednesday, February 19: debates 1 and 2
Monday, February 24: The economic model of crime
reading: Wilson, James (1983), "Thinking about crime," September 1983 issue, The
Atlantic
Wednesday, February 26: The death penalty as a deterrent
readings: Ehrich, Isaac (1975), "The deterrent effect
of capital punishment: a question of life and death," American Economic
Review, 65(3), 397-417
Donohue, John and Justin Wolfers (2005), "Uses and Abuses of
Empirical Evidence in the Death
Penalty Debate
," Stanford Law Review, 58, 791-845
Monday, March 3: no class
Wednesday, March 5: debates 3 and 4
Monday, March 10: Midterm exam
Wednesday, March 12: debates 5 and 6
Monday, March 24:Katz, Lawrence, Steven Levitt,
and Ellen Shustorovich (2003), "Prison conditions, capital punishment, and deterrence,"
American Law and Economics Review, 5(2),
318-343
optional:The cost of Colorado's death penalty, by Justin Marcequ and Hollis Whitson
Wednesday, March 26 : debates 7 and 8
Monday, March 31: Prison conditions and recidividism
reading: Chen, Keith, and Jesse Shapiro, (2007), "Do harsher prison conditions reduce recidivism? A
discontinuity-based approach", American Law and Economics Review,
9(1), pp1-29
Wednesday, April 2: Mandatory office hours to discuss paper (schedule TBA)
Monday, April 7: Medical marijuana and traffic fatalities
Anderson, Mark, Benjamin Hansen, and Daniel Rees (2013) "Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption", Journal of Law and Economics, 56(2), pp. 333-369
Wednesday, April 9: debates 9 and 10
Monday, April 14: Number of guns and the crime rate
reading: Duggan, Mark, (2001), "More guns, more crime,"
Journal of Political Economy, 109, 1086-1114
reading (skim, enough to get main ideas): Lott, John and David Mustard,
(1997), "Crime, deterrence, and right-to-carry
concealed handguns," Journal of Legal Studies, XXVI, 1-68
Wednesday, April 16: The social costs of gun ownership
reading: Cook, Phillip and Jens Ludwig, (2006), "The social costs of gun ownership," Journal of Public
Economics, 90, 379-391
Monday, April 21: Guns and suicides
reading: Briggs, J. and A. Tabarrok (2014), "Firearms and suicides in US states," International Review of Law and Economics,
37, pp. 180-188
Wednesday, April 23: A drug gang's finances
reading: Levitt, S. and S. Venkatsh (2000), "An economic analysis
of a drug-selling gang's finances," Quarterly Journal of Economics,
115, pp. 755-789
Monday, April 28: student presentations of papers (in reverse alphabetical order, beginning at 1:55pm)
Wednesday, April 30: no class
Monday, May 5 (1pm): Final exam
Download exam here after 12:30pm on Monday, May 5. Turn your answers into me by email before 3pm.