Crime, Inequality and Subsidized Housing:Evidence from South Africa

Roxana Manea; Patrizio Piraino; Martina Viarengo
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Patrizio Piraino and Martina Viarengo

No 66-2021, CIES Research Paper series from Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute

Abstract: We study the relationship between housing inequality and crime in South Africa. We create a novel panel dataset combining information on crimes at the police station level with census data. We find that housing inequality explains a significant share of the variation in both property and violent crimes, net of spillover effects, time and district fixed effects. An increase of onestandard deviation in housing inequality explains between 9 and 13 percent of crime increases. Additionally, we suggest that a prominent post-apartheid housing program for low-income South Africans helped to reduce inequality and violent crimes. Together, these findings suggest the important role that equality in housing conditions can play in the reduction of crime in an emerging economy context.

Keywords: Inequality; Crime; Economic Development. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2021-05-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, 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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Related works:
Journal Article: Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa (2023)
Working Paper: Crime, Inequality and Subsidized Housing: Evidence from South Africa (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gii:ciesrp:cies_rp_66

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