TY - JOUR
T1 - Sentencing policy, implied demographic welfare weights, and the theory of sentencing reform
AU - Waldfogel, Joel
PY - 1996/2
Y1 - 1996/2
N2 - Different groups of people experience varying degrees of different externalities. By a government's choice of expenditures to control externalities, it affects different members of the population differently. These choices implicitly "value" the welfare of members of different groups. This paper adapts the framework developed by Ahmad and Stern (Journal of Public Economics, 1984, 25, 259-298) to infer welfare weights underlying a system of commodity taxation, to infer the welfare weights implicitly attached to different population groups by US sentencing policy. Welfare-improving directions of sentencing reform are also calculated.
AB - Different groups of people experience varying degrees of different externalities. By a government's choice of expenditures to control externalities, it affects different members of the population differently. These choices implicitly "value" the welfare of members of different groups. This paper adapts the framework developed by Ahmad and Stern (Journal of Public Economics, 1984, 25, 259-298) to infer welfare weights underlying a system of commodity taxation, to infer the welfare weights implicitly attached to different population groups by US sentencing policy. Welfare-improving directions of sentencing reform are also calculated.
KW - Crime
KW - Sentencing reform
KW - Welfare weights
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U2 - 10.1016/0047-2727(95)01498-5
DO - 10.1016/0047-2727(95)01498-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0030078436
VL - 59
SP - 177
EP - 193
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
SN - 0047-2727
IS - 2
ER -