Randi Hjalmarsson, Ph.D.

Recent Accomplishments

Hjalmarsson’s primary area of research is the economics of crime. Specifically, her dissertation addressed three questions related to juvenile arrest and incarceration. In “Building Criminal Capital Behind Bars: Peer Effects in Juvenile Corrections?(co-authored with Patrick Bayer and David Pozen), Hjalmarsson analyzes the influence that juvenile offenders serving time in the same correctional facility have on each other’s subsequent criminal activity. She finds strong evidence of peer effects for various categories of crime; the influence of peers primarily affects individuals who already have some experience in a particular crime category. In “Juvenile Jails: A Path to the Straight and Narrow or Hardened Criminality,?Hjalmarsson utilizes discontinuities in punishment that arise in Washington State’s juvenile sentencing guidelines to identify the effect of incarceration on the post-release criminal behavior of juveniles. The results indicate that incarcerated individuals have lower propensities to be reconvicted of a crime. Hjalmarsson has also considered the role played by juvenile arrest and incarceration in non-crime outcomes. Specifically, using the NLSY97 data, she finds that arrested and incarcerated individuals are about 10 and 25 percentage points, respectively, less likely to graduate high school by age 19 than those who are not arrested. Further analysis, however, suggests that only the incarceration effect can be readily interpreted as causal. In addition, an exploration of the mechanisms potentially underlying the incarceration effect points most consistently towards an education impeding stigma.

Funded Research

At this time, Hjalmarsson does not have any externally funded research.

Future Plans

During the next few years, Hjalmarsson’s research will continue to focus on the economics of crime. For example, in one current project, she is assessing the role played by ability in criminal markets. While ability is talked about in many dimensions with respect to traditional labor market questions, much less emphasis is placed on it in studies of crime. Specific research questions include whether innately smarter criminals are less likely to get arrested; whether higher ability individuals are more likely to learn from past arrests; and whether ability can explain any of the race gaps in arrest and incarceration rates. She has also recently written a paper that examines whether executions have a short-term deterrent effect on homicides in Texas. Another current project (joint with Mark Duggan and Brian Jacob) investigates the effect of gun shows on crime and suicide rates. Hjalmarsson also plans on broadening her research agenda beyond the economics of crime. In particular, she is working on two housing market related projects. In the first, she is testing for discrimination in the online rental housing market and in the second, she is testing for efficiency in the Swedish cooperative market.