Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/78629 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2005:19
Publisher: 
Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU), Uppsala
Abstract: 
Earlier studies on income inequality and crime have typically used total income or total earnings. However, it is quite likely that it is changes in permanent rather than in transitory income that affects crime rates. The purpose of this paper is therefore to disentangle the two effects by, first, estimating region-specific inequality in permanent and transitory income and, second, estimating crime equations with the two separate income components as explanatory variables. The results indicate that it is important to separate the two effects; while an increase in the inequality in permanent income yields a positive and significant effect on total crimes and three different property crimes, an increase in the inequality in transitory income has no significant effect on any type of crime. Using a traditional, aggregate, measure of income yields mainly insignificant effects on crime.
Subjects: 
Crime
permanent income
transitory income
JEL: 
J30
K40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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