Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Qi Ge

Abstract

This paper utilizes state level education data measuring public schools’ Adequate Yearly Progress to estimate the impact of the federal education policy, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), on crime rates in the Unites States. The study employs a fixed effects model and a lagged fixed effects model to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of NCLB on decreasing crime through improving the quality and number of educational years completed across the country. The main findings indicate that the policy was effective in decreasing overall property crime and motor vehicle theft. For property crime, the impact of school improvement takes the greatest effect after one and two years. The magnitude of the impact found is small but suggests a pathway for policy makers to further decrease crime by way of focused educational reform.

Included in

Economics Commons

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