Drug Dealing, Incarceration, and Self-Employment

自主创业的理论模型假设，风险规避、创业能力和对自主的偏好是个体在自主创业和工资/薪水工作之间做出决定的核心。由于缺乏对这些因素的实际测量，以往的实证研究在其自营职业的计量经济模型中包含了粗糙的代理，如年龄、教育、婚姻状况和配偶特征。因此，实证文献未能充分检验风险规避、创业能力和对自主的偏好是否是自主创业的重要决定因素。对于这三个因素，一个潜在的更好的替代指标是这个人过去是否卖过药。毒品交易的性质使得它对那些不那么厌恶风险、更有创业能力、在其他条件相同的情况下更倾向于自主的人更有吸引力。然而，毒品交易与合法自营职业之间的关系尚未在文献中加以研究。来自全国青年纵向调查（NLSY）的数据将被用来调查年轻的毒品贩子是否比非毒品贩子更有可能在职业生涯的早期选择自雇。该项目将汇集对自雇和犯罪经济学的研究，以揭示在这两个文献中以前未解决的问题。这项研究的结果也将有助于深入了解政府在年轻人、前毒品贩子和前罪犯中促进自我就业的计划在多大程度上是有效的。

Theoretical models of self employment posit that risk aversion, entrepreneurial ability, and a preference for autonomy are central to the individual's decision between self employment and wage/salary work. Absent actual measured of these factors, previous empirical studies have included crude proxies, such as age, education, marital status and spousal characteristics, in their econometric models of self employment. The empirical literature, therefore, has not been able to adequately test whether risk aversion, entrepreneurial ability, and a preference for autonomy are important determinants of self employment. A potentially superior proxy for these three factors is whether the individual sold drugs in the past. The nature of drug dealing makes it likely to be attractive to individuals who are less risk averse, have more entrepreneurial ability and have a preference for autonomy, all else equal. The relationship between drug dealing and legitimate self employment, however, has not been examined in the literature. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) will be used to investigate whether young drug dealers are more likely to choose self employment than non drug dealers early in their careers. This project will bring together research on self employment and the economics of crime to shed new light on previously unresolved issues in both literatures. The findings from this research will also provide insight into the extent to which governmental programs promoting self employment among youths, former drug dealers, and ex convicts can be effective.