Ban the Box, Convictions, and Public Employment

Authors

Terry Ann Craigie, Connecticut CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Publication Title

Economic Inquiry

Abstract

Ban the Box (BTB) policies mandate deferred access to criminal history until later in the hiring process. However, these policies chiefly target public employers. The study is the first to focus on the primary goal of BTB reform, by measuring the impact of BTB policies on the probability of public employment for those with convictions. To execute the analyses, the study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (2005–2015) and difference-in-difference (DD) estimation. The study finds that BTB policies raise the probability of public employment for those with convictions by about 30% on average. Some scholars argue that BTB policies encourage statistical discrimination against young low-skilled minority males. The study employs triple-difference (DDD) estimation to test for statistical discrimination, but uncovers no evidence to support the hypothesis. (JEL J15, J71, J78, K4).

Volume

58

Issue

1

First Page

425

Last Page

445

DOI

10.1111/ecin.12837

ISSN

00952583

Comments

Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.

Recommended Citation

Craigie, Terry Ann, "Ban the Box, Convictions, and Public Employment" (2020). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/68