INEQUALITY AND CRIMINALITY REVISITED: FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM BRAZIL

Maria Bernadete Sarmiento Gutierrez, Mario Jorge Cardoso de Mendonça, Adolfo Sachsida and Paulo Loureiro

Anais do XXXII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 32nd Brazilian Economics Meeting] from ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics]

Abstract: The objective of this study is to shed light on the determinants of criminality in Brazil. In order to undertake it we performed an econometric model based in panel data analysis for Brazilian states: Among the major conclusions we have an important result that income inequality plays an important role in criminality. Results also showed that unemployment and urbanization are positively related to crime factors. Based in panel data GMM methodology we found the existence of "inertial effect" on criminality. Panel data GMM estimator was also used to control the existence of endogeneity related to the variable public security. In this case, the results showed that public security spending is effective to diminishes criminality. Contrary to the common wisdom, we cannot found evidence that poverty increases violent crime. Finally considering the results from the Granger causality tests, it was possible to show that inequality causes crime in fact and not the contrary, what supports that the income inequality in an inequivocous determinant of criminality.

JEL-codes: C23 K42 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam, nep-law and nep-ltv
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.anpec.org.br/encontro2004/artigos/A04A149.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Inequality and criminality revisited: further evidence from Brazil (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:anp:en2004:149

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Secretaria da ANPEC Rua Prof Marcos Valdemar de Freitas Reis s/n Campus do Campus do Gragoatá, Bloco F Niterói, RJ 24210-201 Brazil

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Anais do XXXII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 32nd Brazilian Economics Meeting] from ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics] Secretaria da ANPEC Rua Prof Marcos Valdemar de Freitas Reis s/n Campus do Campus do Gragoatá, Bloco F Niterói, RJ 24210-201 Brazil. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Rodrigo Zadra Armond ().