The Economic Determinants of Crime: an Approach through Responsiveness Scores

Giovanni Cerulli, Maria Ventura and Christopher Baum

No 948, Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: Criminality has always been part of human social interactions, shaping the way peoples have constructed states and legislation. As social order became a greater concern for the public authorities, interest in investigating incentives pushing individuals towards engaging in illegal activities has become a central issue of the political agenda. Building on the existing literature, this paper proposes to focus on a few primary determinants of crime, whose effect is in- vestigated using a Responsiveness Scores (RS) approach performed over 50 US states during the period 2000-2012. The RS approach allows us to account for unit heterogeneous response to each single determinant, thus paving the way to a more in-depth analysis of the relation between crime and its drivers. We attempt to overcome the limitations posed by standard regression methods, which assume a single coefficient for all determinants, thus contributing to the literature in the field with stronger evidence on determinants' e ects and the geographical patterns of responsiveness scores.

Keywords: Crime; Incentives; Responsiveness Scores (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 K42 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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