Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7339419 | Social Science Research | 2014 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
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.
Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities
Psychology
Social Psychology
Authors
Johan Blomquist, Joakim Westerlund,