The harshness of punishment society chooses to impose on crime offenders is mandated by law. However, the quality of life in prison can make this punishment harsher. This creates a variation in the severity of punishment which is not legislated and may differ from society's taste for penalties....

Using a unique data set from the major Colombian cities collected between 2000-2003 and with information on more than 16,000 households, this paper studies the relationship between the kidnap risk a household faces with its migration decisions. We find evidence that exposure to such risk induces...

The harshness of punishment society chooses to impose on crime oÞenders is mandated by law. However, the quality of life in prison can make this punishment harsher. This creates a variation in the severity of punishment which is not legislated and may diÞer from society.s taste for penalties....

Using census data for Argentine prisons for the period 2002-2005, this paperpresents evidence of the positive e¤ect that prisoner education programs (pri-mary and some part of secondary schooling) have on in prison conflictivitymeasured as sanctions or violent behavior of the prisoner. In order...

This paper contributes to the economic analysis of illicit activities and money laundering. First, it presents a theoretical model of long-run growth that explicitly considers illicit workers, activities, and income, alongside a licit private sector and a functioning government. Second, it...