Does Urbanization Cause Crime? Evidence from Rural-Urban Migration in South Africa

Nelly Exbrayat () and Victor Stephane
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Nelly Exbrayat: GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: We study the impact of urbanization driven by internal migration on crime in South Africa. We create a new dataset that combines yearly data on crime and urban population density at the municipality level from 2011 to 2018. We exploit exogenous variations in rural-urban migration induced by climate shocks at origin for identification. We show that higher urban population density leads to a reduction in pecuniary crime rate but has no effect on non-pecuniary crime rate. We highlight two mechanisms explaining this negative effect: a change in population composition and a social network effect.

Keywords: Crime; Migration; South Africa; Urbanization,South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01-12
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04390026v1
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Working Paper: Does Urbanization Cause Crime? Evidence from Rural-Urban Migration in South Africa (2024)
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