TY - JOUR
T1 - LEAD AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
T2 - NEW EVIDENCE FROM LINKED BIRTH, SCHOOL, AND JUVENILE DETENTION RECORDS
AU - Aizer, Anna
AU - Currie, Janet
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Rebecca Lee, Kim Pierson, Joel Stewart, and Alyssa Sylvaria of the Providence Plan for their generosity and help with the data and the Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for financial support. We also thank Michelle Marcus, Amanda Loyola Heuffeman, Jinxu Tang, and Ruby Steedle for outstanding research assistance, as well as Pedro Dal Bó and seminar participants at multiple universities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Using a unique data set linking preschool blood lead levels, birth, school, and detention records for 125,000 children born between 1990 and 2004 in Rhode Island, we estimate the impact of lead on school suspension and juvenile detention. Sibling fixed-effect models suggest that omitted variables related to family disadvantage do not bias OLS estimates. However, measurement error does. We use IV methods that exploit local (within-neighborhood), variation in lead exposure deriving from road proximity and the deleading of gasoline. For boys, a 1 unit increase in lead increased the probability of suspension from school by 6% and detention by 57%.
AB - Using a unique data set linking preschool blood lead levels, birth, school, and detention records for 125,000 children born between 1990 and 2004 in Rhode Island, we estimate the impact of lead on school suspension and juvenile detention. Sibling fixed-effect models suggest that omitted variables related to family disadvantage do not bias OLS estimates. However, measurement error does. We use IV methods that exploit local (within-neighborhood), variation in lead exposure deriving from road proximity and the deleading of gasoline. For boys, a 1 unit increase in lead increased the probability of suspension from school by 6% and detention by 57%.
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U2 - 10.1162/rest_a_00814
DO - 10.1162/rest_a_00814
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129126326
SN - 0034-6535
VL - 101
SP - 575
EP - 587
JO - Review of Economics and Statistics
JF - Review of Economics and Statistics
IS - 4
ER -