IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabre/v40y2019i1d10.1007_s12122-018-9280-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Incarceration and Earnings: Distributional and Long-Term Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Brown

    (US Food and Drug Administration)

Abstract

Before and after incarceration, the typical prisoner differs from the typical American in several ways, including education, employment prospects, and earnings. Current research on the effect of incarceration on earnings predominantly uses techniques that characterize incarceration’s effect on mean wages and is limited to observing wages immediately after release. I employ data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a variety of quantile regressions to estimate differential incarceration penalties across the wage and income distribution. I also estimate the long-term effects of incarceration on mean wages, income, and labor supply. Results suggest that the incarceration wage penalty is relatively homogenous across wages, while more severe penalties are estimated at lower income levels, suggestive of incarceration’s deleterious effect on labor supply. Mean earnings and labor supply penalties are most severe in the period after release but gradually diminish over time for releasees that do not experience additional incarceration spells.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Brown, 2019. "Incarceration and Earnings: Distributional and Long-Term Effects," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 58-83, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:40:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s12122-018-9280-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s12122-018-9280-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12122-018-9280-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12122-018-9280-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Brown, 2015. "Returns to Postincarceration Education for Former Prisoners," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(1), pages 161-175, March.
    2. Manudeep Bhuller & Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. Løken & Magne Mogstad, 2020. "Incarceration, Recidivism, and Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(4), pages 1269-1324.
    3. Jeffrey R. Kling, 2006. "Incarceration Length, Employment, and Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 863-876, June.
    4. Kling, J.R., 1999. "The Effect of Prison Sentence Length on the Subsequent Employment and Earnings of Criminal Defendants," Papers 208, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    5. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    6. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Steven Raphael, 2010. "Improving Employment Prospects for Former Prison Inmates: Challenges and Policy," NBER Chapters, in: Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs, pages 521-565, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Yang, Crystal S., 2017. "Local labor markets and criminal recidivism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 16-29.
    9. Jeffrey R. Kling & David Weiman & Bruce Western, 2001. "The Labor Market Consequences of Incarceration," Working Papers 829, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    10. repec:pri:crcwel:wp13-12-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Buchinsky, Moshe, 1994. "Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure 1963-1987: Application of Quantile Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 405-458, March.
    12. Amanda Geller & Irwin Garfinkel & Carey E. Cooper & Ronald B. Mincy, 2009. "Parental Incarceration and Child Well‐Being: Implications for Urban Families," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1186-1202, December.
    13. John Bound & Richard B. Freeman, 1992. "What Went Wrong? The Erosion of Relative Earnings and Employment Among Young Black Men in the 1980s," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(1), pages 201-232.
    14. Waldfogel, Joel, 1994. "Does conviction have a persistent effect on income and employment?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 103-119, March.
    15. Fernández-Kranz Daniel & Aitor Lacuesta & Núria Rodríguez-Planas, 2013. "The Motherhood Earnings Dip: Evidence from Administrative Records," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(1), pages 169-197.
    16. Bruce Western & Jeffrey R. Kling & David F. Weiman, 2001. "The Labor Market Consequences of Incarceration," Working Papers 829, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    17. Jeffrey Grogger, 1995. "The Effect of Arrests on the Employment and Earnings of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(1), pages 51-71.
    18. Moshe Buchinsky, 1998. "Recent Advances in Quantile Regression Models: A Practical Guideline for Empirical Research," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(1), pages 88-126.
    19. repec:pri:crcwel:wp06-01-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Amanda Geller & Carey Cooper & Irwin Garfinkel & Ofira Schwartz-Soicher & Ronald Mincy, 2012. "Beyond Absenteeism: Father Incarceration and Child Development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 49-76, February.
    21. repec:pri:wwseco:dp208 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Koenker, Roger, 2004. "Quantile regression for longitudinal data," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 74-89, October.
    23. Roger Koenker & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "Quantile Regression," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 143-156, Fall.
    24. Bruce Western & Becky Pettit, 2000. "Incarceration and Racial Inequality in Men's Employment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(1), pages 3-16, October.
    25. Nagin, Daniel & Waldfogel, Joel, 1998. "The Effect of Conviction on Income Through the Life Cycle," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 25-40, March.
    26. Grogger, Jeff, 1992. "Arrests, Persistent Youth Joblessness, and Black/White Employment Differentials," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(1), pages 100-106, February.
    27. Amanda Geller & Irwin Garfinkel & Bruce Western, 2006. "The Effects of Incarceration on Employment and Wages An Analysis of the Fragile Families Survey," Working Papers 932, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    28. Steven Raphael, 2010. "Improving Employment Prospects for Former Prison Inmates: Challenges and Policy," NBER Working Papers 15874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Kristin Turney, 2013. "Liminal Men: Incarceration and Family Instability," Working Papers 1478, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Darolia, Rajeev & Mueser, Peter & Cronin, Jacob, 2021. "Labor market returns to a prison GED," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Benjamin Monnery & Saïd Souam & Anna Montagutelli, 2021. "Economie du travail en prison : enjeux, résultats et recommandations," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-26, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    3. Bence Czafit & János Köllő, 2015. "Employment and wages before and after incarceration – evidence from Hungary," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Grenet, Julien & Grönqvist, Hans & Niknami, Susan, 2024. "The effects of electronic monitoring on offenders and their families," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    5. Pallab K. Ghosh & Gary A. Hoover & Zexuan Liu, 2020. "Do State Minimum Wages Affect the Incarceration Rate?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 845-872, January.
    6. Holzer, Harry J., 2007. "Collateral Costs: The Effects of Incarceration on the Employment and Earnings of Young Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 3118, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Anna Bindler & Nadine Ketel, 2022. "Scaring or Scarring? Labor Market Effects of Criminal Victimization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(4), pages 939-970.
    8. McCrary, Justin & Lee, David S., 2009. "The Deterrence Effect of Prison: Dynamic Theory and Evidence," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt2gh1r30h, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    9. Roberto Galbiati & Aurélie Ouss & Arnaud Philippe, 2021. "Jobs, News and Reoffending after Incarceration [Examining the generality of the unemployment–crime association]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 247-270.
    10. Manudeep Bhuller & Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. Løken & Magne Mogstad, 2020. "Incarceration, Recidivism, and Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(4), pages 1269-1324.
    11. Synøve N. Andersen & Kjetil Telle, 2016. "Electronic monitoring and recidivism. Quasi-experimental evidence from Norway," Discussion Papers 844, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    12. Dasgupta, Kabir & Diegmann, André & Kirchmaier, Tom & Plum, Alexander, 2022. "The gender reveal: The effect of sons on young fathers’ criminal behavior and labor market activities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "From Estimation Results to Stylized Facts: Twelve Recommendations for Empirical Research in International Activities of Heterogeneous Firms," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 15, pages 479-514, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Stijn Kelchtermans & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2011. "The great divide in scientific productivity: why the average scientist does not exist," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 20(1), pages 295-336, February.
    15. Jeffrey R. Kling, 2006. "Incarceration Length, Employment, and Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 863-876, June.
    16. Brown, Christian & Routon, P. Wesley, 2018. "On the distributional and evolutionary nature of the obesity wage penalty," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 160-172.
    17. Powell, David & Wagner, Joachim, 2010. "The Exporter Productivity Premium along the Productivity Distribution: First Evidence from a Quantile Regression Approach for Fixed Effects Panel Data Models," IZA Discussion Papers 5112, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Silver, Ian A. & D'Amato, Christopher & Wooldredge, John, 2021. "The cycle of reentry and reincarceration: Examining the influence on employment over a period of 18 years," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Christian Brown, 2017. "Maternal Incarceration and Children's Education and Labor Market Outcomes," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 31(1), pages 43-58, March.
    20. David S. Lee & Justin McCrary, 2005. "Crime, Punishment, and Myopia," NBER Working Papers 11491, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:40:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s12122-018-9280-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.