Striking at the Roots of Crime: The Impact of Social Welfare Spending on Crime During the Great Depression

Ryan S. Johnson, Shawn Kantor, Price V. Fishback

NBER Working Paper No. 12825
Issued in January 2007

---- Acknowledgements -----

The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of James Heckman, Lawrence Katz, Lars Lefgren, Paul Rhode, Koleman Strumpf, and an anonymous referee. We offer special thanks to Koleman Strumpf for providing us with information on the extent to which Prohibition was repealed by local governments and Paul Rhode who shared annual data on tax returns with us. Seminar participants at the 2002 NBER Summer Institute, 2003 ASSA meetings, and the Universities of California-Davis, California-Los Angeles, California-Riverside, and Utah provided insightful comments and advice. Financial support has been provided by National Science Foundation Grants SBR-9708098, SES- 0080324, and SES-0214395. We are solely responsible for the views expressed in the article.

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