Speaker: Diogo Britto (Bocconi University)

Time: 4:00-5:30 pm, April 7, 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Zoom Meeting ID: 969 9017 4936 Passcode: inse

Abstract:

We investigate the effects of having a child on parents' criminal behavior in Brazil. Exploring rich administrative records, we find that first-time fathers are 28.2% more likely to be criminally prosecuted in the two years after childbirth. This is driven by economically motivated and violent crimes, while we observe no change in crimes with no clear economic motivation. Fathers that increase their criminal activity are younger and are at the bottom part of the income distribution. We also show large increases in domestic violence, which are consistent with both effects of economic unrest in the household and increases in the time spent between partners. In our last set of results, we explore a discontinuity in the assignment of maternity benefits by the government and show that receiving benefits from the government reduces in 30% the likelihood of being criminally prosecuted after childbirth.

Speaker:

Professor Diogo Britto is a postdoc researcher in economics at Bocconi University. He is also an IZA Research Affiliate. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Catholic University of Milan and a visiting scholar at the University of California - Santa Barbara. He holds a joint PhD degree in Law and Economics at the Universities of Bologna, Hamburg and Erasmus Rotterdam in 2015. He is an applied economist with interests in gender, development and political economy. His research papers have been published in top economics journals, including Econometrica, Review of Economics and Statistics, and European Journal of Political Economy.

Source: Institute of Structural Economics