%0 Report
        %A Borbely, Daniel
%A Gehrsitz, Markus
%A McIntyre, Stuart
%A Rossi, Gennaro
        %T Permanent School Closures and Crime: Evidence from Scotland
        %D 2023
        %8 2023 Oct
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 16523
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16523
        %X In this article we study the effects of permanent school closures on crime. We leverage the closure of over 300 schools in Scotland between the school years 2006/07 and 2018/19, and employ a staggered difference-in-differences design on a matched sample. We find that neighbourhoods affected by school closures experience a reduction in crime of about 9% of a standard deviation, relative to areas where schools remained open. This effect is mainly driven by a reduction in violent and property crimes. We provide evidence on several mechanisms explaining the negative crime effect, such as changes in neighbourhood composition and reductions in school-level segregation.
        %K crime
%K school closures
%K neighbourhoods