https://macropaperwarehouse.com/authors/samuel-norris/Samuel NorrisHugo -- gohugo.ioen-ushttps://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/the-impact-of-incarceration-on-employment-earnings-and-tax-filing/https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/the-impact-of-incarceration-on-employment-earnings-and-tax-filing/<p>This paper estimates the causal effect of incarceration on employment, wage earnings, self-employment, and tax filing behavior using administrative criminal justice data linked to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records for approximately half a million felony defendants in two U.S. states: North Carolina and Ohio. The study period covers cases filed from the early 2000s through 2014, with outcomes tracked through 2020 using IRS W-2 and 1040 records.</p> <h3 id="research-question">Research Question</h3> <p>The central question is whether incarceration itself — as distinct from arrest, conviction, and other criminal justice interactions that precede or accompany it — causes lasting reductions in defendants&rsquo; labor market outcomes. The paper explicitly holds fixed upstream interactions (conviction, arrest) to isolate the effect of the incarceration sentence.</p>