The New Scarlet Letter: Negotiating the U.S. Labor Market with a Criminal Record

Raphael, Steven

doi:10.17848/9780880994811

Cited by 20 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Harding et al (2018) recently found comparable results using data from Michigan. These estimates strongly support the notion that incarcerating men is likely to have significant effects on their future labor market outcomes (see also Raphael 2014). That said, there is no straightforward way to make inferences from such estimates about the impact of mass incarceration on non-institutionalized male labor-force participation.…”

Section: Mass Incarcerationmentioning

confidence: 52%

The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men

Binder

Bound

2019

Journal of Economic Perspectives

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Over the last half century, US wage growth stagnated, wage inequality rose, and the labor-force participation rate of prime-age men steadily declined. In this article, we examine these worrying labor market trends, focusing on outcomes for males without a college education. Though wages and participation have fallen in tandem for this population, we argue that the canonical neoclassical framework, which postulates a labor demand curve shifting inward across a stable labor supply curve, does not reasonably explain the data. Alternatives we discuss include adjustment frictions associated with labor demand shocks and effects of the changing marriage market—that is, the fact that fewer less-educated men are forming their own stable families—on male labor supply incentives. In the synthesis that emerges, the phenomenon of declining prime-age male labor-force participation is not coherently explained by a series of causal factors acting separately. A more reasonable interpretation, we argue, involves complex feedbacks between labor demand, family structure, and other factors that have disproportionately affected less-educated men.

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Section: Mass Incarcerationmentioning

confidence: 52%

The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men

Binder

Bound

2019

Journal of Economic Perspectives

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“…In addition, incarceration may hinder their attainment of job skills compared to those who are free, and lower their productivity through attrition of human capital (Cox ). Empirical evidence also finds that incarceration has a negative effect on earnings (see Grogger ; Western, Kling, and Weiman ; Kling ; Holzer ; Raphael ).…”

Section: Incarceration‐food Insecurity Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Incarceration may also limit the upward income mobility of offenders and their families through three mechanisms: stigma, acquiring human capital, and obtaining social capital. Incarceration marks offenders as “untrustworthy” making it difficult for them to find employment (Raphael ). In addition, incarceration may hinder their attainment of job skills compared to those who are free, and lower their productivity through attrition of human capital (Cox ).…”

Section: Incarceration‐food Insecurity Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the Link Between Food Security and Incarceration

Cox

Wallace

2016

Southern Economic Journal

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Previous work has found that incarceration (defined as confinement in an adult correctional facility) has a variety of impacts on the incarcerated individual and their families including effects on employment and income, educational outcomes of children, and food insecurity (Wallace and Cox ). However, previous literature does not identify a causal impact of incarceration on food insecurity. From a policy perspective, identification of a causal link may aid in understanding why some affected families experience food insecurity, while similarly situated families do not. In this article, we utilize microlevel data from the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Study to provide evidence of a causal impact of incarceration on food insecurity. This is an important dynamic to understand because the prevalence of incarceration in the United States is relatively high, especially among groups where food insecurity is more prevalent (e.g., Blacks), and the associated externalities can have substantial impacts on families that may reach well beyond traditional costs associated with incarceration. The complex relationship between food insecurity and incarceration is estimated within a causal inference approach. We find evidence that incarceration leads to roughly a 4 percentage point increase in the likelihood of food insecurity among households with children that have experienced a parental incarceration.

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“…Many education requirements, continuing education courses, and residency requirements restrict entry into occupations that are the most accessible for low-income individuals. Licensure laws often exclude ex-felons-defensible in many professions but not in alland such prohibitions make it extremely diffi cult for ex-offenders to fi nd postprison employment, thereby contributing to America's high recidivism rate (Raphael 2014). On the right, public interest groups such as the Institute for Justice have opposed occupational licensing based on economic liberty arguments, arguing that it reduces economic effi ciency and retards economic growth (Carpenter et al 2012).…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guild-Ridden Labor Markets: The Curious Case of Occupational Licensing

Kleiner¹

2015

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The New Scarlet Letter: Negotiating the U.S. Labor Market with a Criminal Record

Cited by 20 publications

References 29 publications

The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men

The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men

Identifying the Link Between Food Security and Incarceration

Guild-Ridden Labor Markets: The Curious Case of Occupational Licensing

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