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

Richard Disney, John Gathergood, Stephen Machin and Matteo Sandi

No 651, CFS Working Paper Series from Center for Financial Studies (CFS)

Abstract: "Right to Buy" (RTB), a large-scale natural experiment by which incumbent tenants in public housing could buy properties at heavily-subsidised prices, increased the UK homeownership rate by over 10 percentage points between 1980 and the late 1990s. This paper studies its impact on crime, showing that RTB generated significant reductions in property and violent crime that persist up to today. The behavioural changes of incumbent tenants and the renovation of public properties were the main drivers of the crime reduction. This is evidence of a novel means by which subsidised homeownership and housing policy may contribute to reduce criminality.

Keywords: Crime; Homeownership; Public Housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H44 K14 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/229160/1/1744218889.pdf (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 (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:cfswop:651

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