Working Papers

Ban the Box A recurring topic in Working Papers is criminal justice policy innovation. The goal of these policies is to reduce the negative effects of incarceration on subsequent employment. In the Spring 2024 Working Papers, I reviewed a paper that examined the expungement of felony convictions in California. The paper found no effects on employment or incomes. The positive effects found in previous studies were likely the result of selection effects: the non- random population of those who initiated expungement. In the Fall 2016 Working Papers, I reviewed a working paper on "Ban- The- Box" (BTB) policies, which prohibit employers from asking about criminal history (the notorious "Have you been convicted of a crime?" checkbox) on initial job applications. The intent of such policies is to increase employment among Black males, who have disproportionately more criminal convictions than other applicant groups. The paper found that employers responded by engaging in more statistical discrimination. That is, employers reduced their consideration of young Black men in general because the employers were prohibited from determining which of them had criminal records.