This paper uses a panel of Swedish counties over the years 1988-99 to study the effects of unemployment on property crime rates. The period under study is characterized by great turbulence in the labor market - the variation in the unemployment rates is unprecedented in the second half of the century. The data hence provides a unique opportunity to investigate unemployment effects. According to the theory of economics of crime, increased unemployment rates lead to higher property crime rates. A fixed effects model is estimated to investigate this hypothesis. The model includes time- and county-specific effects and a number of economic and socio-demographic variables in order to control for unobservables and covariates. In addition the model is estimated with linear and quadratic time trends to control for county-specific unobserved trends. The result gives strong evidence that unemployment has a positive and significant effect on burglary, car theft and bike theft.
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Paper provided by Uppsala University, Department of Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number
2003:14.
Length: 27 pages Date of creation: 25 Mar 2003 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2005, pages 353-373. Handle: RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2003_014
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Find related papers by JEL classification: C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data J29 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Other J39 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Other J69 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Other
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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.:
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.
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