Market and Public Policy Mechanisms in Poverty Reduction: The Differential Effects on Poverty Crime

Ralph Allen and Jack Stone

Review of Social Economy, 1999, vol. 57, issue 2, 156-173

Abstract: This paper reports the results of an empirical test of the hypothesis that three mechanisms of poverty reduction-improved market opportunities, government cash transfer payments, and government in-kind transfer payments have differential impacts on the relative return to legal and illegal activity and, in turn, on the rate of property crime. In addition, the paper reports empirical tests of the hypothesis that these differential impacts of market and government policy mechanisms vary by type of property crime. Employing measures of each of these mechanisms, time series models for Burglary, Auto Theft, and Robbery are estimated from yearly, national, Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data for the period 1959 through 1995. The results indicate that poverty reductions due to improved market conditions have similar impacts on each type of property crime. However, the direction and magnitude of the impact of different government policy mechanisms varies between and within particular types of crimes. The paper concludes with an application of these findings to recent legislation, The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF), which overhauled the federal public assistance program.

Keywords: Property crime; proverty; public policy; TANE in-kind transfers; cash transfers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1080/00346769900000033

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