Property Crime and Law Enforcement in Italy. A Regional Panel Analysis 1980-95Giornale degli Economisti, 2003, vol. 62, issue 2, pages 211-240 Abstract: In this paper a Cobb-Douglas utility function is introduced and solved for a dynamic equation of property crime supply and its determinants, namely deterrents and income. Thereafter, all variables are empirically tested by means of a simultaneous equations model, for the sign and magnitude of their mutual relationships in a panel of Italy and its two economically and culturally different areas, the North and the South. The period scrutinized is 1980-95 and the results obtained widely differ among the two. When appropriately modeled and instrumented, in fact, property crime is found to react to police and criminal justice deterrence, and also to incomes, with different parameter magnitudes and significance. The same diversity applies to the parameters related to deterrence, flawed in quite a few cases by scarce law enforcement and productivity, and to those related to local incomes, which still reflect for the South a tendency of crime to substitute for legal activities. Keywords: models with panel data; illegal behavior and the enforcement of law (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gde:journl:gde_v62_n2_p211-240 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Giornale degli Economisti from GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University |
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