Abstract
Compulsory schooling laws (CSL) are often advocated for tackling youth crime. While this may work in developed countries, our study of the Brazilian municipalities over 2000-13 finds mixed evidence. Exploiting the large exogenous variation in compulsory high schooling of 15-17 year olds after the 2009 Brazilian Constitutional Amendment 59, we examine its effect on violent youth crime indices. Only about 53% sample municipalities had adopted the Amendment by 2013. Difference-indifference estimates with municipality fixed effects accounting for the endogenous adoption of the Amendment show small treatment effects for homicides, but insignificant effects for homicide rates in the full sample. In the absence of any significant increase in income/employment for this age group, the observed effects can only be attributed to the incapacitation induced by the Amendment; but this effect was weakened by sudden overcrowding in day and night schools in treated municipalities after 2009. In particular, the small beneficial effect of the Amendment vanishes when class size is greater than its sample median. The crime reduction effects of CSL thus crucially depend on whether/how CSL affects class size.