Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Youth Unemployment and Crime in France

Contents:

Author Info

  • Denis Fougère

    (Crest)

  • Francis Kramarz

    (Crest)

  • Julien Pouget

    (Crest)

Abstract

In this paper we examine the influence of unemployment on property crimes and on violentcrimes in France for the period 1990 to 2000. This analysis is the first extensive study for thiscountry. We construct a regional-level data set (for the 95 départements of metropolitanFrance) with measures of crimes as reported to the Ministry of Interior. To assess socialconditions prevailing in the département in that year, we construct measures of theunemployment rate as well as other social, economic and demographic variables usingmultiple waves of the French Labor Survey. We estimate a classic Becker type model inwhich unemployment is a measure of how potential criminals fare in the legitimate jobmarket. First, our estimates show that in the cross-section dimension, crime andunemployment are positively associated. Second, we find that increases in youthunemployment induce increases in crime. Using the predicted industrial structure toinstrument unemployment, we show that this effect is causal for burglaries, thefts, and drugoffences. To combat crime, it appears thus that all strategies designed to combat youthunemployment should be examined.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.crest.fr/images/doctravail/2007-33.pdf
Our checks indicate that this address may not be valid because: 404 Not Found. If this is indeed the case, please notify (Florian Sallaberry)
File Function: Crest working paper version
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique in its series Working Papers with number 2007-33.

as in new window
Length: 37
Date of creation: 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:crs:wpaper:2007-33

Contact details of provider:
Postal: 15 Boulevard Gabriel Peri 92245 Malakoff Cedex
Phone: 01 41 17 60 81
Web page: http://www.crest.fr
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Edward L. Glaeser & Bruce Sacerdote & Jose A. Scheinkman, 1995. "Crime and Social Interactions," NBER Working Papers 5026, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Panu Poutvaara & Mikael Priks, 2007. "Unemployment and Gang Crime: Could Prosperity Backfire?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1944, CESifo Group Munich.
  3. Richard B. Freeman, 1996. "Why Do So Many Young American Men Commit Crimes and What Might We Do about It?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 25-42, Winter.
  4. Raphael, Steven & Winter-Ember, Rudolf, 2001. "Identifying the Effect of Unemployment on Crime," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 259-83, April.
  5. Richard B. Freeman, 1982. "Crime and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 1031, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Imrohoroglu, Ayse & Merlo, Antonio & Rupert, Peter, 1996. "On the political economy of income redistribution and crime," Bulletins 7497, University of Minnesota, Economic Development Center.
  7. Gary S. Becker, 1968. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76, pages 169.
  8. Angrist, Joshua D & Lavy, Victor, 2001. "Does Teacher Training Affect Pupil Learning? Evidence from Matched Comparisons in Jerusalem Public Schools," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 343-69, April.
  9. Erkki Koskela & Matti Viren, 1997. "An occupational choice model of crime switching," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 29(5), pages 655-660.
  10. Morgan Kelly, 2000. "Inequality And Crime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(4), pages 530-539, November.
  11. Entorf, Horst & Spengler, Hannes, 2000. "Socio-economic and demographic factors of crime in Germany: evidence from panel data of the German States," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute of Economics (VWL) 24110, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute of Economics (VWL).
  12. Giulio Fella & Giovanni Gallipoli, 2008. "Education and Crime over the Life Cycle," Working Papers 630, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
  13. Entorf, Horst & Spengler, Hannes, 2002. "Crime in Europe : causes and consequences," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute of Economics (VWL) 24090, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute of Economics (VWL).
  14. Witte, Ann Dryden, 1980. "Estimating the Economic Model of Crime with Individual Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 57-84, February.
  15. Lance Lochner & Enrico Moretti, 2001. "The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports," NBER Working Papers 8605, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  16. Kelly, Morgan, 2000. "Inequality and crime," Open Access publications from University College Dublin urn:hdl:10197/523, University College Dublin.
  17. Steven D. Levitt & Lance Lochner, 2001. "The Determinants of Juvenile Crime," NBER Chapters, in: Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, pages 327-374 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  18. Steven D. Levitt, 1995. "Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Policeon Crime," NBER Working Papers 4991, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  19. Jayadev, Arjun & Bowles, Samuel, 2006. "Guard labor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 328-348, April.
  20. Steve Machin & Costas Meghir, 2000. "Crime and economic incentives," IFS Working Papers W00/17, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  21. Olivier Jean Blanchard & Lawrence F. Katz, 1992. "Regional Evolutions," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 23(1), pages 1-76.
  22. Grogger, Jeff, 1998. "Market Wages and Youth Crime," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 756-91, October.
  23. Dominique Goux & Eric Maurin, 2000. "The Decline In Demand For Unskilled Labor: An Empirical Analysis Method And Its Application To France," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(4), pages 596-607, November.
  24. Stephen Machin & Olivier Marie, 2004. "Crime and Benefit Sanctions," CEP Discussion Papers dp0645, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  25. Marco Cozzi, 2005. "Black-White Labour Market Conditions and Property Crime in the US: A Quantitative Analysis," Computing in Economics and Finance 2005 339, Society for Computational Economics.
  26. Fajnzylber, Pablo & Lederman, Daniel & Loayza, Norman, 2002. "What causes violent crime?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1323-1357, July.
  27. Julie Berry Cullen & Steven D. Levitt, 1999. "Crime, Urban Flight, And The Consequences For Cities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 159-169, May.
  28. Lance Lochner, 2004. "Education, Work, and Crime: A Human Capital Approach," NBER Working Papers 10478, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  29. Witte, Ann D & Tauchen, Helen, 1994. "Work and Crime: An Exploration Using Panel Data," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 49(Supplemen), pages 155-67.
  30. Grogger, Jeff, 1992. "Arrests, Persistent Youth Joblessness, and Black/White Employment Differentials," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(1), pages 100-106, February.
  31. Imai, Susumu & Krishna, Kala, 2001. "Employment, Dynamic Deterrence and Crime," Working Papers 1-01-2, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Economics.
  32. Papps, Kerry L. & Winkelmann, Rainer, 1998. "Unemployment and Crime: New Answers to an Old Question," IZA Discussion Papers 25, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  33. Edward L. Glaeser & Bruce Sacerdote, 1996. "Why is There More Crime in Cities?," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1746, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  34. David Card & Francis Kramarz & Thomas Lemieux, 1995. "Changes in the Relative Structure of Wages and Employment: A Comparison of the United States, Canada, and France," Working Papers 734, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  35. Steven D. Levitt, 1999. "The changing relationship between income and crime victimization," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Sep, pages 87-98.
  36. Ann Dryden Witte & Helen Tauchen, 1994. "Work and Crime: An Exploration Using Panel Data," NBER Working Papers 4794, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  37. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1973. "Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 521-65, May-June.
  38. Meyers, Samuel L, Jr, 1983. "Estimating the Economic Model of Crime: Employment versus Punishment Effects," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 98(1), pages 157-66, February.
  39. Freeman, Richard B., 1999. "The economics of crime," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 52, pages 3529-3571 Elsevier.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Bianchi, Milo & Buonanno, Paolo & Pinotti, Paolo, 2010. "Do Immigrants Cause Crime?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1023, CEPREMAP.
  2. Wolff, Joachim & Nivorozhkin, Anton, 2012. "Give them a break! Did activation of young welfare recipients overshoot in Germany? (A regression discontinuity analysis)," Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62046, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  3. Aysit Tansel & H. Mehmet Tasci, 2010. "Hazard Analysis Of Unemployment Duration By Gender In A Developing Country: The Case Of Turkey," Working Papers 521, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2010.
  4. Mustard, David B., 2010. "How Do Labor Markets Affect Crime? New Evidence on an Old Puzzle," IZA Discussion Papers 4856, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Suncica Vujic & Siem Jan Koopman & Jacques J. F. Commandeur, 2012. "Economic Trends and Cycles in Crime: A Study for England and Wales," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Department of Statistics and Economics, vol. 232(6), pages 652-677, November.
  6. Almén, Daniel & Nordin, Martin, 2011. "Long term unemployment and violent crimes - using post-2000 data to reinvestigate the relationship between unemployment and crime," Working Papers 2011:34, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  7. C. Detotto & E. Otranto, 2010. "Cycles in Crime and Economy: Leading, Lagging and Coincident Behaviors," Working Paper CRENoS 201023, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
  8. Sergio Beraldo & Raul Caruso & Gilberto Turati, 2011. "Life is now! Time discounting and crime: evidence from the Italian regions (2002-2007)," ICER Working Papers 18-2011, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
  9. Caruso, Raul, 2011. "Crime and sport participation: Evidence from Italian regions over the period 1997–2003," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 455-463.
  10. Vincent Bignon & Eve Caroli & Roberto Galbiati, 2011. "Stealing to Survive: Crime and Income Shocks in 19th Century France," Working Papers halshs-00623804, HAL.
  11. Panu Poutvaara & Mikael Priks, 2011. "Unemployment and gang crime: can prosperity backfire?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 259-273, September.
  12. Sergio Beraldo & Raul Caruso & Gilberto Turati, 2012. "Life is Now! Time Discounting and Crime: Aggregate Evidence from the Italian Regions (2002-2007)," Working papers 013, Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
  13. Vincent Bignon & Eve Caroli & Roberto Galbiati, 2011. "Stealing to Survive: Crime and Income Shocks in 19th Century France," PSE Working Papers halshs-00623804, HAL.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:crs:wpaper:2007-33

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Florian Sallaberry).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.