TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Borbely, Daniel
AU  - Gehrsitz, Markus
AU  - McIntyre, Stuart
AU  - Rossi, Gennaro
        TI  - Permanent School Closures and Crime: Evidence from Scotland
        PY  - 2023/Oct/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16523
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16523
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - crime
KW  - school closures
KW  - neighbourhoods
        ER  -