The impact of social capital on crime: Evidence from the Netherlands

Semih Akçomak and Bas ter Weel

No 136, CPB Discussion Paper from CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: This research shows that social capital is important in explaining why crime is so heterogeneous across Dutch municipalities. This research shows that social capital is important in explaining why crime is so heterogeneous across Dutch municipalities. Social capital is considered as a latent construct composed of a variety of indicators, such as blood donations, voter turnout, voluntary contributions to community well-being, and trust. To isolate exogenous variation in social capital, three historical variables are used as instruments: the fraction of foreigners, the number of schools and the fraction of Protestants in 1859. The historical information provides heterogeneity across municipalities in these three variables. In an application to Dutch municipalities the 2SLS estimates suggest that the exogenous component of social capital is significantly and negatively correlated with current crime rates, after controlling for a range of contemporaneous socio-economic indicators. Next, the robustness analysis shows why some social capital indicators are more useful than the others in applied economic research.

JEL-codes: A13 A14 K42 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc and nep-ure
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Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of social capital on crime: Evidence from the Netherlands (2012)
Working Paper: The Impact of Social Capital on Crime: Evidence from the Netherlands (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpb:discus:136

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