Does homeownership reduce crime? A radical housing reform from the UK

Richard Disney, John Gathergood, Stephen Machin and Matteo Sandi

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: “Right to Buy” (RTB), a large-scale natural experiment whereby incumbent tenants in public housing could buy properties at heavily-subsidised prices, increased the UK homeownership rate by over 10 percentage points between its 1980 introduction and the 1990s. This paper studies the impact of this reform on crime by leveraging exogenous variation in eligibility for the policy. Results show that RTB generated significant property crime reductions. Behavioural changes of incumbent tenants and renovation of public properties were the main drivers of this crime reduction. This is evidence of a novel means by which subsidised homeownership and housing policy can reduce criminality.

Keywords: crime; ownership; pubic housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H44 K14 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2023-06-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-law and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Economic Journal, 5, June, 2023. ISSN: 0013-0133

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119338/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does Homeownership Reduce Crime? A Radical Housing Reform from the UK (2023)
Working Paper: Does homeownership reduce crime? A radical housing reform from the UK (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:119338

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