Down and out in Italian towns: measuring the impact of economic downturns on crime

Guido de Blasio and Carlo Menon ()

No 925, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: The paper investigates the effect of local economic conditions on crime. The study focuses on Italy�s local labor markets and analyzes the short-term response of crime to the severe slump of 2007-2009. It shows that the downturn led to a significant increase in economic-related offenses that do not require particular criminal skills or tools (namely, thefts); on the other hand, for offenses for which specific skills and criminal experience are essential (say, robberies) the impact of the crisis was negative. The results also suggest that: i) labor market institutions (i.e. wage supplementary schemes and pro-worker contractual arrangements) had a role in slowing down the effect of the economy on crime; ii) the link between the downturn and crime was weaker in areas where the presence of organized crime is relatively more intensive.

Keywords: crime; economic crises; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E32 K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/temi-disc ... 0925/en_tema_925.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Down and out in Italian towns: Measuring the impact of economic downturns on crime (2016)
Working Paper: Down and Out in Italian Towns: Measuring the Impact of Economic Downturns on Crime (2013)
Working Paper: Down and Out in Italian towns: measuring the impact of economic downturns on crime (2013)
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:bdi:wptemi:td_925_13

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().