经济与社会研究院SEMINAR第79期

题目：Parental Absence in Childhood and Migrants' Crime: Evidence from an Individual Prisoner Data in China

主讲人：张丹丹

时间：2017年12月19日13:30-15:00

地点：暨南大学中惠楼106B会议室

主讲人简介：

张丹丹，北京大学国家发展研究院助理教授，澳大利亚国立大学经济学博士。主要研究领域为劳动经济学，应用计量经济学，实验经济学。研究的问题包括中国转型期劳动力市场问题，城乡劳动力流动的经济、社会影响，以及制度对人行为选择的影响等。近年来，张丹丹博士开始对流动人口的犯罪问题进行研究并在多所监狱收集犯罪的数据。目前张丹丹博士已有多篇文章发表在The Economic Journal 等国际顶级经济学期刊。

Abstract:

Economic transition, along with sheer scale of rural-to-urban migration, has induced dramatic changes in Chinese family structure over the past three decades. A large cohort of migrant children became left-behind in rural villages, and their experience in growing up without parental care brought about important social issues. This paper examines whether parental absence in childhood is associated with migrants’ criminality in China, by using a unique survey and experimental data on prison inmates and their comparable non-inmates. We find that parental absence in childhood will increase the propensity of a male to commit crimes, although different reasons (i.e., left-behind or other reasons) for parental absence may drive criminality through different channels. Generally, being left-behind arouses risk-loving behaviors and deteriorates moral values, while parental absence due to other reasons reduces opportunity for education and thus forms poor personality. In addition, we also find that fathers’ absence is more likely to induce son’s crime activities, while mothers’ absence may impose an impact through reducing education attainment. These findings provide useful insights for policy making to alleviate social costs related to the rural-to-urban migration.