Child Gender, Ethnicity, and Criminal Behavior after Birth

Abstract

This paper aims to challenge the implicitly made assumption in the economics of crime literature that findings are universally applicable across cultures and race. Based on very precise judicial and demographic data from New Zealand we are able to replicate the results of an earlier study by Dustmann and Landersø (2018) across the average of the population. However, when splitting out by ethnicity we can show that the effect is entirely driven by the white part of the population and that there is no effect on the native Maori. The particular effect we are exploiting is the gender of the first-born child on convictions rates. The strong ethnic divide is observed along many dimensions. Our results serve as a caution that research can amplify implicit ethnic and racial bias.

Keywords: Crime Research, Racial Bias

JEL Classification: K42, K49, L38