Snapping Back: Food Stamp Bans and Criminal Recidivism
利用佛罗里达州对毒品贩子实施的食品券禁令政策断点，研究发现禁令增加了毒品贩子的累犯率，尤其是财产犯罪，表明福利削减迫使前罪犯通过犯罪弥补收入损失。
I estimate the effect of access to food stamps on criminal recidivism. In 1996, a federal welfare reform imposed a lifetime ban from food stamps on convicted drug felons. Florida modified this ban, restricting it to drug traffickers who commit their offense on or after August 23, 1996. I exploit this sharp cutoff in a regression discontinuity design and find that the ban increases recidivism among drug traffickers. The increase is driven by financially motivated crimes, suggesting that the cut in benefits causes ex-convicts to return to crime to make up for the lost transfer income.