Harbaugh, Bill

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The collection highlights some of the research being undertaken by Bill Harbaugh, Associate Professor, UO Economics Department.

A.K.A.
W. T. Harbaugh

William T. Harbaugh

538 PLC
University of Oregon

Economics Department

Eugene, Oregon 97403-1285

Phone: 541-346-1244
Fax: 541-346-1243

For more information, visit his personal web site at: http://harbaugh.org

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Open Access
An Experimental Test of Criminal Behavior Among Juveniles and Young Adults
(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2006-08) Visser, Michael Scott, 1976-; Harbaugh, William; Mocan, H. Naci
We report results from economic experiments that provide a direct test of the hypothesis that criminal behavior responds rationally to changes in the possible rewards and in the probability and severity of punishment. The experiments involve decisions that are best described as petty larceny, and are done using high school and college students who can anonymously take real money from each other. We find that decisions about whether and how much to steal are, in general, rational and responsive to the variations in tradeoffs, and sometimes, though not always, to the overall availability of criminal opportunities.