Based on New Zealand's administrative court charges data, we document child gender-specific differences in future criminal behavior of young fathers. The deterrent impact of having a son on the future likelihood of receiving convictions persists for as long as ten years post-childbirth. Utilizing population-wide monthly tax registers and Census data, we provide key insights into the role model hypothesis. We show that young fathers with a son have (i) a higher likelihood of being in employment, (ii) higher wages & salaries, (iii) lower benefit dependency, (iv) better qualification, and (v) a higher likelihood of being in a partnered relationship.

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1 October 2022

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Labour Economics 782022

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DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102224

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537122001142

This Journal article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Causes of crime