Hate Crime and Human Capital

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of hate crimes committed by White offenders on the educational attainment of Black individuals across United States commuting zones between 1990 and 2017. Using data on reported hate crimes from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program and data on educational attainment from the decennial Census and American Community Survey, we show an increase in per-capita hate crime in a commuting zone has a statistically significant and economically meaningful negative impact on college completion for young Black individuals residing in that commuting zone. A 10% increase in per-capita hate crime committed by White offenders reduces the proportion of Black individuals aged 21 to 30 with four or more years of college between 0.12 and 0.23 percentage points, a 1% to 2% reduction relative to the sample mean. In contrast, hate crime committed by White offenders has no negative impact on educational attainment for White individuals. Our results are robust to adjusting for geographic heterogeneity in hate crime reporting, including systematic under-reporting of hate crimes in the Southern United States. The findings in this paper add to the growing body of evidence establishing a negative effect of racial violence on long-run economic growth.