Literature Review/Policy Recommendation Paper
You are asked to complete a short literature review/policy recommendation report summarizing the readings for the papers on topic you have selected. As you know, most of the problems that economists consider interesting are analyzed using some math. However, most of these interesting problems are initially thought about by using words, and words are essential in conveying why they are interesting. A critical part of presenting economics ideas is being able to describe the important features of the issue and analysis using words. Working to be able to explain intuition for economic questions and analysis will be very helpful for your success on this assignment and in the course, and for your career.
One goal for your paper is to convincingly address a legal issue from an economic viewpoint. Your paper should clearly draw from the readings for the topic you have selected (either crime, evidence, or Indian law) to discuss a policy issue or issues. You should focus on a theme or themes these papers have. It’s recommended that you address an issue (or issues) the legal system handles well and/or areas for improvement. You may focus on one or several issues.
All papers discussed, referenced, or drawn upon must be cited. Any direct quoting from a paper must be properly represented as such. The ten suggested papers for each topic were selected to provide some of the important insights for that topic. Naturally, there have been many more than ten papers written on each topic. So, you are welcome to find additional/alternative papers to include. These should be scholarly research papers.
Another goal of your entire literature review/policy recommendation report is to critically analyze the body of work on the topic you selected. What does this mean? • To be critical is to exercise careful judgment. It is to think about something from an in-depth perspective, to identify the pros and cons or strengths and weaknesses of something. • To analyze something is to carefully study the different parts of something. It is to examine something to explain or interpret. Therefore, your goal in writing this literature review is to show that you have thought carefully and in-depth about this entire body of work. You will show this by being able to describe the main ideas of each of the papers you’ve read along with the ways in which the papers connect to, build on, and/or otherwise relate to one another.
Here’s some guidance: • Your literature review is not a book review where you discuss each paper separately. Instead, it is a synthesis of the papers you’ve read along with an explanation of the main ideas covered in this body of work. • Your literature review should be organized according to theme or themes, not by source. This means you will discuss a theme and the ways in which multiple papers fit within that theme. • It should thoroughly summarize and compare the articles covered in the module. This
should also include a discussion of the method of analysis, such as theoretical or empirical. When the analysis is empirical, a description of the data is needed. • You should also evaluate the quality of the analysis contained in the papers. This may fit well near the end of your paper when you may wish to summarize the theme or themes you’ve discussed. • There is no set length on these, but typically 7 or 8 pages would be a minimum length to explain the relevant points of the topic and the themes in the papers. • As stated above, a critical part of presenting economics ideas is being able to describe the important features of the issue and analysis using words. However, not only are economists expected to be able to describe and analyze, but they are expected to present their descriptions and analyses in professional, clear, edited language.
All papers (whether on the paper list or not) discussed, referenced, or drawn upon must be cited. Any direct quoting from a paper must be properly represented as such. The literature reviews will be submitted on Canvas and will be analyzed by Turnitin.
Relationship to other assignments: • The short summary of paper/journal article assignments throughout the semester are aimed at helping you to understand the papers and to get an early start on reading them, understanding the ideas in the papers and in the literature, seeing the connections between the papers, and writing about them. • The rough draft is aimed at facilitating the process of writing and revising your literature review. • The presentation of the ideas in your literature review is aimed at the way ideas are often presented in the profession. In careers related to economics, it’s quite common for someone (or even a team) to write a paper, report, etc. and present it orally to its intended audience. I encourage you to work on your presentation while writing your literature review as it’s helpful on many levels and is a good way to help ensure that your literature review is clear and well organized. • If you have questions as you’re working on these other assignments or your literature review, please get in touch. I’m happy to help provided you’re working diligently.
THE TOPICS ABOUT TO WRITE IT IS.
Crime Papers
Paper #1: Becker, G. (1968), “Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach,” The Journal of Political Economy 76: 169–217.
Paper #2: Mastrobuoni, G. and D. Rivers, Criminal Discount Factors and Deterrence, working paper.
Paper #3 Weisburd, D. (2015) “The Law of Crime Concentration and the Criminology of Place,” Criminology 53: 133–157.
Paper #4: Mueller-Smith, M. and K. Schnepel (2020), “Diversion in the Criminal Justice System,”
working paper.
Paper #5: Mueller-Smith, M. (2015), “The Criminal and Labor Market Impacts of Incarceration,”
working paper.
Paper #6: Arnold, D., W. Dobbie, and C.S. Yang (2018), “Racial Bias in Bail Decisions,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1885–1932.
Paper #7: Raphael, S. and S. Tahamont (2017), “Effect of Mandatory Minimum Punishments on the Efficiency of Criminal Justice Resource Allocation,”
working paper.
Paper #8: Dobbie, W., J. Goldin, and C.S. Yang (2018), “The Effects of Pretrial Detention on Conviction, Future Crime, and Employment: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges,” American Economic Review, 108(2): 201–240.
Paper #9: Di Tella, R. and E. Schargrodsky (2013), “Criminal Recidivism after Prison and Electronic Monitoring,” Journal of Political Economy, 121: 28—73.
Paper #10: Lundberg A. and M. Mungan (2022), “The Effect of Evidentiary Rules on Conviction Rates,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 203: 563–576.
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