| Title | The Local Economic Impacts of Prisons |
| Date | January 28, 2021 (Thursday) 16:30-18:00 |
| Location | via Zoom |
| Abstract | This paper examines the local economic consequences of prisons using two complementary approaches. The first uses prison openings in 249 communities across the entire United States during the 1990s, and the second compares winning and rejected communities in prison site-selection competitions in Texas. I find that counties where prisons were opened experienced substantial gains in government employment driven by jobs at the prisons, but saw little spillovers to economic activities in the private sector. Although prisons fail to provide a major boost to local economies beyond the direct effect of prison employment, after the opening of a prison, local labor markets in treated counties are less responsive to macroeconomic shocks, consistent with the view that jobs at prisons are “recession proof.” While these improvements are spread across broader communities, prisons decrease housing values and lead to changes in neighborhood composition, specifically towards low socioeconomic status individuals, in neighborhoods closest to prisons. |
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| Note | Joint with WINPEC seminar. Registration is required. For this seminar, please register through here even if you registered before (the previous link is not available). Please make sure you put your name and affiliation. |