Endogeneity in Casino Revenue and Crime Rates: The Case of Las Vegas, Nevada

Man-Keung Kim, Arwin Pang, Wei Bao and Ryan Bosworth
Additional contact information
Man-Keung Kim: Utah State University
Arwin Pang: National Chung Hsing University
Wei Bao: University of Mississippi
Ryan Bosworth: Utah State University

The Review of Regional Studies, 2016, vol. 46, issue 3, 223-236

Abstract: This paper investigates relationships among casino revenue, crime rates, and the number of visitors in Las Vegas, Nevada. Numerous studies have attempted to assess the impact of casino activities on crime rates but have provided inconclusive results. Some studies have found that casino activities increase crime rates, while others find no significant relationship between casino gambling and crime rates. But all studies that have found casinos increase crime rates do not adjust the crime rate for the number of visitors to the area. The impact of casino activities on crime rates disappears, however, when crime rates are adjusted for visitors. This study revisits the question with consideration for the potential endogeneity among variables. This paper addresses endogeneity concerns by estimating the impact of casino activities on crime using a system of equations to represent casino activities, adjusted crime rates, and visitors. Three stage least squares is used to estimate the system. Results show that the impact of casino activities on crime rates persists even after crime rates are adjusted for the visitors. Efforts to reduce crime can be effective in boosting the Las Vegas regional economy.

Keywords: casino; endogeneity; crime rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C36 K4 L83 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://journal.srsa.org/ojs/index.php/RRS/article/view/46.3.2/pdf/ To View On Journal Page
http://journal.srsa.org/ojs/index.php/RRS/article/download/46.3.2/pdf/ To Download Article

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rre:publsh:v46:y:2016:i:3:p:223-236

Access Statistics for this article

The Review of Regional Studies is currently edited by Tammy Leonard & Lei Zhang and Lei Zhang

More articles in The Review of Regional Studies from Southern Regional Science Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tammy Leonard & Lei Zhang ().