The Economics of Crime

June 29-July 3, 2026 in Amsterdam 

Faculty 

Olivier Marie is Professor of Labour Economics at Erasmus School of Economics. His research focuses on the economics of crime, studying how education, labour market opportunities, social policies, and institutional decision-making shape criminal behaviour and reintegration outcomes. 

Nadine Ketel is Associate Professor of Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Research Fellow at the Tinbergen Institute. Her research focuses on the consequences of crime victimisation, providing rare causal evidence on how victimisation affects individuals’ mental health, labour market trajectories, and longer-run wellbeing. 

Amanda Agan is Associate Professor at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. Her research sits at the intersection of crime, labour markets, and discrimination, examining how criminal legal involvement shapes economic opportunities — and how employment barriers can contribute to involvement in crime.

Giovanni Mastrobuonni is Professor of Economics at the University of Torino and Carlo Alberto Chair at the Collegio Carlo Alberto. His research focuses on policing, prisons, and the economics of crime, examining how law-enforcement strategies, prison conditions, and sentencing policies affect criminal behaviour and recidivism. 

Paolo Pinotti is Professor of Economics and Endowed Chair in the Economic Analysis of Crime at Bocconi University, where he also serves as Dean of Faculty. His research uses administrative data and applied micro-econometrics to study organised crime, corruption, and the effects of migration and labour-market policies on criminal behaviour and social outcomes. 

Meet the Lecturers

Course

Crime imposes substantial social and economic costs, and designing effective crime-reduction policies requires a deep understanding of the mechanisms that drive criminal behaviour and how institutions respond. This intensive summer school brings together leading international scholars in the economics of crime to introduce participants to cutting-edge empirical research on human capital and crime, discrimination in labour markets and the criminal legal system, policing and incarceration, organised crime and immigration, and the consequences of victimisation. Through lectures, hands-on workshops, and critical discussion of frontier studies, students will gain both theoretical insights and practical methodological tools for independent research in this rapidly expanding field.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Understand key economic models of crime and deterrence
• Evaluate the role of education, labour markets, and social policy in criminal behavior
• Analyse institutional discrimination in criminal justice decisions
• Assess causal evidence on policing, sentencing, incarceration and re-entry
• Examine organised crime and migration patterns in international context
• Study the causes and consequences of victimisation
• Apply empirical techniques (DiD, RDD, audit studies, admin data) in guided workshops
• Develop presentation and policy-translation skills through structured group work

Topics

• Foundations of the economics of crime: incentives, deterrence, and rational choice
• Human capital formation, schooling, and the long-run impacts on crime
• Labour markets, inequality, and crime participation
• Criminal justice discrimination: pre-trial, sentencing and labor market re-entry
• Police strategies, deterrence vs. displacement, and crowding-out effects
• Incarceration, rehabilitation, and recidivism
• Organized crime, criminal networks, and corruption
• Immigration and crime: stereotypes, legal status, and integration
• Victimisation: labour market, mental health, and intergenerational effects
• Applied methods in crime research: DiD, RDD, audit studies, administrative microdata
• Hands-on coding and design of causal empirical strategies in economics of crime

Schedule

The program spans a total of five days, and will be delivered via a series of lectures, discussion groups and workshops. 

• Day 1: Olivier Marie
• Day 2: Amanda Agan
• Day 3: Giovanni Mastrobuonni 
• Day 4: Paolo Pinotti
• Day 5: Nadine Ketel

Level

The Summer School welcomes Master students, PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers, as well as professionals and policymakers working in fields related to crime, inequality, and public policy. The course is interdisciplinary and open to participants from economics, sociology, criminology, public policy, law, psychology, data science, and related social sciences.

Admission requirements

Participants are expected to have a basic understanding of empirical research methods (e.g., causal interpretation of regression). Preferably, they have followed an introductory course in econometrics, statistics, or applied research methods at the graduate level, or have equivalent experience from policy analysis or professional practice. Familiarity with a statistical package such as Stata is helpful for the workshops but not required. A background in economics or another social science discipline (such as sociology, criminology, public policy, or law) is sufficient for active participation.