A Non-Stationary Panel Data Investigation of the Unemployment–Crime Relationship

Summary, in English

Many empirical studies of the economics of crime focus solely on the determinants thereof, and do not consider the dynamic and cross-sectional properties of their data. As a response to this, the current paper offers an in-depth analysis of this issue using data covering 21 Swedish counties from 1975 to 2010. The results suggest that the crimes considered are non-stationary, and that this cannot be attributed to county-specific disparities alone, but that there are also a small number of common stochastic trends to which groups of counties tend to revert. In an attempt to explain these common stochastic trends, we look for a long-run cointegrated relationship between unemployment and crime. Overall, the results do not support cointegration, and suggest that previous findings of a significant unemployment–crime relationship might be spurious.

• Författare: Johan Blomquist; Joakim Westerlund
• Avdelning/ar: Nationalekonomiska institutionen
• Publiceringsår: 2014
• Språk: Engelska
• Sidor: 114-125
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: Social Science Research
• Volym: 44
• Länkar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.11.007
• Dokumenttyp: Artikel i tidskrift
• Förlag: Elsevier
• Ämne: Economics
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 0049-089X