Donna Gilleskie (University of North Carolina)

Event
Thursday, April 20, 2017 - 3:40 pm to 5:00 pm
Event Type: 

Dr. Donna GilleskieLocation: 368A Heady Hall

Description: Donna Gilleskie
"The Effects of a Criminal Record on Employment, Welfare Participation, and Health:  A Model of Long-run Behaviors and Outcomes when Lagged Variables are Missing Non-Randomly"

Abstract: We study the collateral consequences of women's criminal records on their future employment opportunity, welfare participation, and health outcomes. We explicitly model the dynamic process of women's life-cycle behaviors of employment, school enrollment, welfare receipt, criminal offenses, and physical and mental health outcomes using a longitudinal survey data set. Because some survey questions about behaviors are dependent on responses to previous questions, we address the endogeneity of missing lagged variables by modeling the missingness as functions of women's endogenous histories of behaviors and outcomes, exogenous characteristics, as well as permanent and time-varying unobserved heterogeneity and random shocks. The econometric approach allows us to uncover direct causal impacts of criminal record on health, as well as the indirect effects on health through employment, education, and welfare receipt. We use the estimated dynamic model to simulate employment, welfare, and health trajectories based on different criminal record histories and policy scenarios.

Contact Person: Wallace Huffman

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