Racial Beliefs, Location and the Causes of Crime

Thierry Verdier and Yves Zenou

No 602, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: This paper provides a unified explanation for why blacks commit more crime, are located in poorer neighborhoods and receive lower wages than whites. If everybody believes that blacks are more criminal than whites - even if there is no basis for this - then blacks are offered lower wages and, as a result, locate further away from jobs. Distant residence increases even more the black-white wage gap because of more tiredness and higher commuting costs. Blacks have thus a lower opportunity cost of committing crime and become indeed more criminal than whites. Therefore beliefs are self-fulfilling.

Keywords: Self-Fulfilling Prejudies; Urban Black Ghettos; Crime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 K42 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2003-10-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-law, nep-mfd and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: RACIAL BELIEFS, LOCATION, AND THE CAUSES OF CRIME (2004)
Working Paper: Racial Beliefs, Location And The Causes Of Crime (2000)
Working Paper: Racial Beliefs, Location and the Causes of Crime (2000)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0602

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