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The Effect of Criminal Records on Access to Employment

Amanda Agan¹; Sonja Starr²

¹ Rutgers University, 75 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (e-mail: ) · ² University of Michigan, 625 S. State Street, South Hall 3230, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (e-mail: )

This paper adds to the empirical evidence that criminal records are a barrier to employment. Using data from 2,655 online applications sent on behalf of fictitious male applicants, we show that employers are 60 percent more likely to call applicants that do not have a felony conviction. We further investigate whether this effect varies based on applicant race (black versus white), crime type (drug versus property crime), industry (restaurants versus retail), jurisdiction (New Jersey versus New York City), local crime rate, and local racial composition. Although magnitudes vary somewhat, in every subsample the conviction effect is large, significant, and negative.

DOI

10.1257/aer.p20171003

Volume

107 (5)

Pages

560-564

Language

en

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BibTeX

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