American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Clicking on Heaven's Door: The Effect of Immigrant Legalization on Crime
American Economic Review
vol. 107,
no. 1, January 2017
(pp. 138–68)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
We estimate the effect of immigrant legalization on the crime rate of immigrants in Italy by exploiting an ideal regression discontinuity design: fixed quotas of residence permits are available each year, applications must be submitted electronically on specific "click days," and are processed on a first come, first served basis until the available quotas are exhausted. Matching data on applications with individual-level criminal records, we show that legalization reduces the crime rate of legalized immigrants by 0.6 percentage points on average, on a baseline crime rate of 1.1 percent.Citation
Pinotti, Paolo. 2017. "Clicking on Heaven's Door: The Effect of Immigrant Legalization on Crime." American Economic Review 107 (1): 138–68. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150355Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
- K37 Immigration Law
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law