The effects of absent fathers on adolescent criminal activity
An economic approach
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21876772 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David M Zimmer (0000-0002-3131-709X, Western Kentucky University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 85-103 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Demographic Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2054-0892 • E-ISSN: 2054-0906 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/dem.2021.26 |
| OpenAlex | W3206762786 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
Simple ordinary least squares estimates indicate that absent fathers boost probabilities of adolescent criminal behavior by 16–38%, but those numbers likely are biased by unobserved heterogeneity. This paper first presents an economic model explaining that unobserved heterogeneity. Then turning to empirics, fixed effects, which attempt to address that bias, suggest that absent fathers reduce certain types of adolescent crime, while lagged-dependent variable models suggest the opposite. Those conflicting conclusions are resolved by an approach that combines those two estimators using an orthogonal reparameterization approach, with model parameters calculated using a Bayesian algorithm. The main finding is that absent fathers do not appear to directly affect adolescent criminal activity. Rather, families with absent fathers possess traits that appear to correlate with increased adolescent criminal behaviors
Bayesian probability · Criminal behavior · Criminal behaviour · Criminology · Developmental psychology · Econometrics · Economics · Estimator · Instrumental variable · Ordinary least squares · Statistics · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Economics of Agriculture and Food Markets · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology
Efficient estimation of models for dynamic panel data
Family Structure, Family Processes, and Adolescent Delinquency
Estimation of Dynamic Models with Error Components
Estimating Vector Autoregressions with Panel Data
Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects
Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data
Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models
Mostly Harmless Econometrics
The effects of single-mother and single-father families on youth crime
Father Absence and Youth Incarceration
Reassessing the family-delinquency association
Crime and Punishment
The Father-Child Relationship, Parenting Styles, and Adolescent Risk Behaviors in Intact Families
| Highly cited | No |
|---|