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Holly Nguyen

Pennsylvania State University

Gains-Loss Asymmetry of Jobs and Income

Employment is one of the key factors related to the cessation of criminal behavior, or desistance (Sampson and Laub, 1993; Uggen, 2000). Theoretically, gaining stable employment strengthens conventional social bonds, structures day-to-day activities, and offers economic reprieve. Over the last several decades, scholars have devoted much attention to studying how gaining stable employment can contribute to the desistance process. Much less is known is the relationship between losing a job and criminal behavior. I draw on prospect theory and the loss aversion principle (Kahneman and Traversky, 1979; 1992), which suggests that individuals asymmetrically feel losses greater than that of an equivalent gain, to answer the following question: Does getting a job reduce crime as much as losing a job increase crime? I analyze monthly data of adult males recently admitted to state prison from the Second Nebraska Inmate Study (Horney, 2001; N=460, NT=13,217) and estimate asymmetrical fixed effects models to shed light on the relationship between job gain/job loss and criminal behavior.

Thursday, December 1st

12:30-2:00pm MST

Followed by a meeting with graduate students 1:30-2pm MST

Location: KTCH 1B40