Steven D. Levitt

The William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago

Academics

Downloadable Papers

 

 Business

 

“White-Collar Crime Writ Small: A Case Study of Bagels, Donuts, and the Honor System.”American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, May 2006, 96(2), pp. 290-294.

“Why Are Gambling Markets Organised So Differently from Financial Markets?” Economic Journal, 2004, 114(495), pp. 223-46. Download

“Is no News Bad News? Information Transmission and the Role of “Early Warning” in the Principal-Agent Model.” The Rand Journal of Economics, 1997, 28(4), pp. 641-61. (with Snyder, Christopher M.) Download

“Optimal Incentive Schemes when Only the Agents’ “Best” Output Matters to the Principal.” The Rand Journal of Economics, 1995, 26(4, Symposium on the Economics of Organization), pp. 744-60. Download

 

 

Crime

 

“Economic Contribution to the Understanding of Crime.”Annual Review of Law and Social Science.December 2006, Vol.2: pp.147-164. (with Miles, Thomas) Download

“Measurement Error, Legalized Abortion, and the Decline in Crime: A Response to Foote and Goetz.” Politics & the Life Sciences, 2008, 123(1), pp. 425-440.(with Donohue, John) Download

“The Case of the Critics Who Missed the Point: A Reply to Webster et al.” Criminology and Public Policy, 2006, 5(Issue 3), pp. 449-460. Download

“Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors That Explain the Decline and Six That Do Not.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2004, 18(1), pp. 163-90. Download

“An Empirical Analysis of Imprisoning Drug Offenders.” Journal of Public Economics, 2004, 88(9-10), pp. 2043-66. (with Kuziemko, Ilyana) Download

“Further Evidence that Legalized Abortion Lowered Crime: A Reply to Joyce.” Journal of Human Resources, 2004, 39(1), pp. 29-49. (with Donohue, John J., III) Download

“Prison Conditions, Capital Punishment, and Deterrence.”American Law and Economics Review, 2003, 5(2), pp. 318-43. (with Katz, Lawrence and Shustorovich, Ellen) Download

“Testing the Economic Model of Crime: The National Hockey League’s Two Referee Experiment.” Contributions to Economic Analysis and Policy, 2002, 1(1), pp. na. Download

“Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime.” The American Economic Review, 1997, 87(3), pp. 270-90. Download

“Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effects of Police on Crime: Reply.” American Economic Review, 2002, 92(4), pp. 1244-50. Download

“Alternative Strategies for Identifying the Link Between Unemployment and Crime.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 2001, 17(Issue 4), pp. 377. Download

“Growing Up in the Projects: The Economic Lives of a Cohort of Men Who Came of Age in Chicago Public Housing.” American Economic Review, 2001, 91(2), pp. 79-84. (with Venkatesh, Sudhir A.) Download

“How Dangerous Are Drinking Drivers?” Journal of Political Economy, 2001, 109(6), pp. 1198-237. (with Porter, Jack) Download

“The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2001, 116(2), pp. 379-420. (with Donohue, John J., III) Download

“The Impact of Race on Policing and Arrests.” Journal of Law and Economics, 2001, 44(2), pp. 367-94. (with Donohue, John J., III) Download

“Are we a family or a business?” History and disjuncture in the urban American street gang.” Theory & Society, 2000, 29(Issue 4), pp. 427. (with Venkatesh, Sudhir A.) Download

“An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2000, 115(3), pp. 755-89. (with Venkatesh, Sudhir A.) Download

“The Limited Role of Changing Age Structure in Explaining Aggregate Crime Rates.” Criminology, 1999, 37(Issue 3), pp. 581. Download

“The Changing Relationship between Income and Crime Victimization.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, 1999, 5(3), pp. 87-98. Download

“Using Sentence Enhancements to Distinguish between Deterrence and Incapacitation.” Journal of Law and Economics, 1999, 42, pp. 343-63. (with Kessler, Daniel) Download

“Crime, Urban Flight, and the Consequences for Cities.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1999, 81(2), pp. 159-69. (with Cullen, Julie B.) Download

“Why Do Increased Arrest Rates Appear to Reduce Crime: Deterrence, Incapacitation, or Measurement Error?” Economic Inquiry, 1998, 36(3), pp. 353-72. Download

“The relationship between crime reporting and police: Implications for the use of uniform crime reports.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 1998, 14(1), pp. 61-81. Download

“Juvenile Crime and Punishment.” 1998, Journal of Political Economy , 106 (December): 1156-1185 Download

“Guns, Violence, and the Efficiency of Illegal Markets.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 1998, Vol. 88 No. 2: pp. 463-67. (with Donohue, John J., III) Download

“Measuring Positive Externalities from Unobservable Victim Precaution: An Empirical Analysis of Lojack.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1998, 113(1), pp. 43-77 (with Ayres, Ian) Download

“Incentive compatibility constraints as an explanation for the use of prison sentences instead of fines.” International Review of Law and Economics, 1997, pp. 179-92. Download

“A skeptical but sympathetic appraisal of the prospects for nurturant crime-control policies.” Politics & the Life Sciences, 1997, 16(Issue 1), pp. 34. Download

“The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding Litigation.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1996, 111(2), pp. 319-51. Download

“Review of Drug War Heresies by MacCoun and Reuter.” Journal of Economic Literature, 2003, 41(2), pp. 540-44. Download

“Comment on Ludwig and Raphael’s Analysis of ‘Project Exile.'” in Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence, edited by Jens Ludwig and Phil Cook, November 2002, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Download (coming soon)

“The Determinants of Juvenile Crime.” in Risky Behavior by Youths, edited by Jonathan Gruber, University of Chicago Press, 2000. (with Lance Lochner) Download (coming soon)

“Deterrence.” In Crime, edited by James Q. Wilson and Joan Petersilia. San Francisco: ICS press. 2001. Download (coming soon)

“Understanding Colombia’s Crime Situation and the Institutional Reforms Required to Alleviate the Problem.” For a volume edited by Alberto Alesina, 2000. (with Mauricio Rubio) Download (coming soon)

“The Economics of Inmate Labor Participation.” 1999. Download (coming soon)

 

Cheating

 

“Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in RealEstate Transactions.”Review of Economics and Statistics, November 2008, Vol.90, No.4, pp. 599-611. (with Syverson, Chad) Download

“White-Collar Crime Writ Small: A Case Study of Bagels, Donuts, and the Honor System.”American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, May 2006, 96(2), pp. 290-294.

“Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2003, 118(3), pp. 843-77. (with Jacob, Brian A.) Download

“Catching Cheating Teachers: The Results of an Unusual Experiment in Implementing Theory.” Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 2003, pp. 185-209. (with Jacob, Brian A.) Download

“Winning Isn’t Everything: Corruption in Sumo Wrestling.” American Economic Review, 2002, 92(5), pp. 1594-605. (with Duggan, Mark) Download

“To Catch a Cheat.” Education Next. Winter 2004. (with Jacob, Brian) Download

 

Economics Profession

 

“An Examination of the Influence of Theory and Individual Theorists on Empirical Research in Microeconomics.” American Economic Review, 2003, 93(2), pp. 151-55. (with Chiappori, Pierre-Andre) Download

“Honoring James Heckman’s Contributions to Economics: Identification, Heterogeneity, and Economic Models.” Law & Social Inquiry, 2002, 27(Issue 1), pp. 35. Download

 

 

Education

 

“Exploring the Impact of Financial Incentives on Stereotype Threat: Evidence from a Pilot Study.”AEA Papers and Proceedings,2008, Vol.98, Issue 2, pp. 370-375. (with Fryer, Roland and List, John)

“What Does Performance in Graduate School Predict? Graduate Economics Education and Student Outcomes.”American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 2007, 97(2), pp. 512-518. (with Athey, Susan, Katz, Lawrence F., Krueger, Alan B., and Poterba, James.) Download

“The Effect of School Choice on Participants: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries.”Econometrica, 2006, 74(5), pp. 1191-1230. (with Cullen, Julie and Jacob, Brian) Download

“The Black-White Test Score Gap Through Third Grade”; Forthcoming, American Law and Economics Review, 2005. (with Fryer, Roland G.) Download

“The Impact of School Choice on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Chicago Public Schools”, 2004, Forthcoming Journal of Public Economics Download

“Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2004, 86(2), pp. 447-64. (with Fryer, Roland G., Jr.) Download

“Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2003, 118(3), pp. 843-77. (with Jacob, Brian A.) Download

“Catching Cheating Teachers: The Results of an Unusual Experiment in Implementing Theory.” Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 2003, pp. 185-209. (with Jacob, Brian A.) Download

“To Catch a Cheat.” Education Next . Winter 2004. (with Jacob, Brian) Download

“Falling Behind.” Education Next. Fall 2004. (with Fryer, Ronald) Download

“Aging in an American Street Gang: Toward a Life-Course Perspective on Gang Involvement.” Forthcoming, in collection of articles to be published by American Bar Foundation. (with Sudhir Venkatesh). Download (coming soon)

 

 

Experiments

 

“Exploring the Impact of Financial Incentives on Stereotype Threat: Evidence from a Pilot Study.”AEA Papers and Proceedings,2008, Vol.98, Issue 2, pp. 370-375. (with Fryer, Roland and List, John)

“Economics: Homo Economicus Evolves.”Science, February 2008, 319(5865): pp. 909-910. (with List, John A.) Download

“Viewpoint: On the Generalizability of Lab Behavior in the Field.” Canadian Journal of Economics, 2007, 40(2): 347-370.

“What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal about the Real World?”Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2007, 21(2), pp.153-174. (with List, John A.)

“The Effect of School Choice on Participants: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries.”Econometrica, 2006, 74(5), pp. 1191-1230. (with Cullen, Julie and Jacob, Brian) Download

 

Politics

 

“Congressional Distributive Politics and State Economic Performance.” Public Choice, 1999, 99(1-2), pp. 185-216. (Poterba, James M.) Download

“Comparing Interest Group Scores across Time and Chambers: Adjusted ADA Scores for the U S Congress.” American Political Science Review, 1999, 93(1), pp. 33-50. (with Groseclose, Tim and Snyder, James M., Jr.) Download

“Are PACs Trying to Influence Politicians or Voters?” Economics and Politics, 1998, 10(1), pp. 19-35. Download

“The Impact of Federal Spending on House Election Outcomes.” Journal of Political Economy, 1997, 105(1), pp. 30-53. (with Snyder, James M., Jr.) Download

“Decomposing the Sources of Incumbency Advantage in the U. S. House.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, 1997, 22(1), pp. 45-60. (with Wolfram, Catherine D.) Download

“How Do Senators Vote? Disentangling the Role of Voter Preferences, Party Affiliation, and Senator Ideology.” The American Economic Review, 1996, 86(3), pp. 425-41. Download

“Political Parties and the Distribution of Federal Outlays.” American Journal of Political Science, 1995, 39(4), pp. 958-80. (with Snyder, James M., Jr.) Download

“Policy Watch: Congressional campaign finance reform.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1995, 9(Issue 1), pp. 183. Download

“Using Repeat Challengers to Estimate the Effect of Campaign Spending on Election Outcomes in the U.S. House.” Journal of Political Economy, 1994, 102(4), pp. 777-98. Download

“An Empirical Test of Competing Explanations for the Midterm Gap in the U S House.” Economics and Politics , 1994, 6(1), pp. 25-37. Download (coming soon)

 

Race

 

“Exploring the Impact of Financial Incentives on Stereotype Threat: Evidence from a Pilot Study.”AEA Papers and Proceedings,2008, Vol.98, Issue 2, pp. 370-375. (with Fryer, Roland and List, John)

“The Black-White Test Score Gap Through Third Grade”; Forthcoming, American Law and Economics Review, 2005. (with Fryer, Roland G.) Download

“Testing Theories Of Discrimination: Evidence From Weakest Link.” Journal of Law and Economics, 2004, 47(2), pp. 431. Download

“The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2004, 119(3), pp. 767-805. (with Fryer, Roland G., Jr.) Download

“Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2004, 86(2), pp. 447-64. (with Fryer, Roland G., Jr.) Download

“Growing Up in the Projects: The Economic Lives of a Cohort of Men Who Came of Age in Chicago Public Housing.” American Economic Review, 2001, 91(2), pp. 79-84. (with Venkatesh, Sudhir A.) Download

“The Impact of Race on Policing and Arrests.” Journal of Law and Economics, 2001, 44(2), pp. 367-94. (with Donohue, John J., III) Download

“Are we a family or a business?” History and disjuncture in the urban American street gang.” Theory & Society, 2000, 29(Issue 4), pp. 427. (with Venkatesh, Sudhir A.) Download

“An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2000, 115(3), pp. 755-89. (with Venkatesh, Sudhir A.) Download

“Falling Behind.” Education Next. Fall 2004. (with Fryer, Ronald) Download

“Aging in an American Street Gang: Toward a Life-Course Perspective on Gang Involvement.” Forthcoming, in collection of articles to be published by American Bar Foundation. (with Sudhir Venkatesh). Download (coming soon)

 

 

Real Estate

 

“Antitrust Implications of Home Seller Outcomes when using Flat-Fee Real Estate Agents.”Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Economics, 2008, pp.47-93. (with Syverson, Chad) Download

“Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in RealEstate Transactions.”Review of Economics and Statistics, November 2008, Vol.90, No.4, pp. 599-611. (with Syverson, Chad) Download

 

 

Survey

 

“Economic Contribution to the Understanding of Crime.”Annual Review of Law and Social Science.December 2006, Vol.2: pp.147-164. (with Miles, Thomas) Download

“Economics: Homo Economicus Evolves.”Science, February 2008, 319(5865): pp. 909-910. (with List, John A.) Download

“Viewpoint: On the Generalizability of Lab Behavior in the Field.” Canadian Journal of Economics, 2007, 40(2): 347-370.

“What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal about the Real World?”Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2007, 21(2), pp.153-174. (with List, John A.)

“Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors That Explain the Decline and Six That Do Not.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2004, 18(1), pp. 163-90. Download

“The Determinants of Juvenile Crime.” in Risky Behavior by Youths, edited by Jonathan Gruber, University of Chicago Press, 2000. (with Lance Lochner) Download (coming soon)

“Deterrence.” In Crime, edited by James Q. Wilson and Joan Petersilia. San Francisco: ICS press. 2001. Download (coming soon)

 

Sports

 

“Why Are Gambling Markets Organised So Differently from Financial Markets?” Economic Journal, 2004, 114(495), pp. 223-46. Download

“Testing the Economic Model of Crime: The National Hockey League’s Two Referee Experiment.” Contributions to Economic Analysis and Policy, 2002, 1(1), pp. na. Download

“Winning Isn’t Everything: Corruption in Sumo Wrestling.” American Economic Review, 2002, 92(5), pp. 1594-605. (with Duggan, Mark) Download

“Testing Mixed-Strategy Equilibria When Players Are Heterogeneous: The Case of Penalty Kicks in Soccer.” American Economic Review, 2002, 92 : 1138-1151 (With Chiappori, Pierre-Andre and Groseclose, Timothy) Download

“The Hazards of Moral Hazard: Comment on Goff, Shughart, and Tollison.” Economic Inquiry, 1998, 36(4), pp. 685-87. Download

 

 

Theory

 

“Testing Mixed-Strategy Equilibria When Players Are Heterogeneous: The Case of Penalty Kicks in Soccer.” American Economic Review, 2002, 92 : 1138-1151 (With Chiappori, Pierre-Andre and Groseclose, Timothy) Download

“Are PACs Trying to Influence Politicians or Voters?” Economics and Politics, 1998, 10(1), pp. 19-35. Download

“Guns, Violence, and the Efficiency of Illegal Markets.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 1998, Vol. 88 No. 2: pp. 463-67. (with Donohue, John J., III) Download

“Is no News Bad News? Information Transmission and the Role of “Early Warning” in the Principal-Agent Model.” The Rand Journal of Economics, 1997, 28(4), pp. 641-61. (with Snyder, Christopher M.) Download

“Incentive compatibility constraints as an explanation for the use of prison sentences instead of fines.” International Review of Law and Economics, 1997, pp. 179-92. Download

“Optimal Incentive Schemes when Only the Agents’ “Best” Output Matters to the Principal.” The Rand Journal of Economics, 1995, 26(4, Symposium on the Economics of Organization), pp. 744-60. Download

 

Traffic Safety

 

“Evaluating the Effectiveness of Child Safety Seats and Seat Belts in Protecting Children from Injury.”Forthcoming,Economic Inquiry., (with Doyle, Joseph) Download

“Evidence that Seat Belts Are as Effective as Child Safety Seats in Preventing Death for Children.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, February 2008, 90(1), pp. 158-163. Download

“Sample Selection in the Estimation of Air Bag and Seat Belt Effectiveness.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2001, 83(4), pp. 603-15. (with Porter, Jack) Download

“How Dangerous Are Drinking Drivers?” Journal of Political Economy, 2001, 109(6), pp. 1198-237. (with Porter, Jack) Download

 

 

Working and Unpublished

 

“The Role of Skill versus Luck in Poker: Evidence from the World Series of Poker.” April 2011. (with Miles, Thomas J.) Download

“The effect of school choice on student outcomes evidence from randomized lotteries.” NBER working paper series; no. 10113; National Bureau of Economic Research, 2003. (with Cullen, Julie B. and Jacob, Brian A.) Download

“Evaluating the Effectiveness of Child Safety Seat and Seat Belts in Protecting Children from Injury.” August 2002. (with Joseph J. Doyle, Jr.) Download

“Evidence that Seat Belts are as Effective as Child Safety Seats in Preventing Death for Children Aged Two and Up.” Unpublished paper, August 2005. Download

“The impact of legalized abortion on teen childbearing” ABF working paper; #2112; Chicago, Il: American Bar Foundation, 2002. (with Donohue, John J. and Grogger, Jeff) Download (coming soon)

“Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in Real Estate Transactions” NBER Working Paper Series No. 11053; National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005. (with Syverson, Chad) Download

“Measurement Error, Legalized Abortion, the Decline in Crime: A Response to Foote and Goetz (2005)” January 2006 (with Donohue, John J.) Download

“Measuring the Impact of Crack Cocaine.” NBER Working Papers Series no. 11318; Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005. (with Fryer, Roland G., Heaton, Paul S. and Murphy, Kevin M.) Download

“Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children” NBER working paper series ;; no. 12066; National Bureau of Economic Research, 2006. (with Fryer) Download

“Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children” February 2006. (with Roland G. Fryer) Download

“Testing the Efficiency of Markets in the 2002 World Cup” June 2006 (with Ricard Gil) Download

“What Do Laboratory Experiments Tell Us About the Real World?” University of Chicago and NBER June 2006 (with John A. List) Download

© 2019 The Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics at the University of Chicago