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August 4, 2020

"The Effect of Incarceration on Mortality"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper just posted to SSRN authored by Samuel Norris, Matthew Pecenco and Jeffrey Weaver. Here is its abstract:

This paper analyzes the effect of incarceration on mortality using administrative data from Ohio between 1992 and 2017.  Using event study and difference-in-differences approaches, we compare mortality risk across incarcerated and non-incarcerated individuals before and after pre-scheduled releases from prison.  Mortality risk halves during the period of incarceration, with large declines in murders, overdoses, and medical causes of death.  However, there is no detectable effect on post-release mortality risk, meaning that incarceration increases overall longevity.  We estimate that incarceration averts nearly two thousand deaths annually in the US, comparable to the 2014 Medicaid expansion.

August 4, 2020 at 02:55 PM | Permalink

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