IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepdps/dp1685.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does homeownership reduce crime? A radical housing reform in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Disney
  • John Gathergood
  • Stephen Machin
  • Matteo Sandi

Abstract

"Right to Buy" (RTB), a large-scale natural experiment by which incumbent tenants in public housing could buy properties at heavily-subsidised prices, increased the homeownership rate in Britain by over 10 percentage points between 1980 and the late 1990s. This paper studies its impact on crime, showing that RTB generated significant reductions in property and violent crime that persist up to today. The gentrification of incumbent tenants and their behavioural changes were the main drivers of the crime reduction. This is evidence of a novel means by which gentrification, and housing provision, may have contributed to the sizable crime drops observed in several Western economies in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Disney & John Gathergood & Stephen Machin & Matteo Sandi, 2020. "Does homeownership reduce crime? A radical housing reform in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp1685, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1685
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1685.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jens Ludwig & Greg J. Duncan & Paul Hirschfield, 2001. "Urban Poverty and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Randomized Housing-Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 655-679.
    2. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren, 2018. "The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1107-1162.
    3. Jens Ludwig & Greg J. Duncan & Lisa A. Gennetian & Lawrence F. Katz & Ronald C. Kessler & Jeffrey R. Kling & Lisa Sanbonmatsu, 2013. "Long-Term Neighborhood Effects on Low-Income Families: Evidence from Moving to Opportunity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 226-231, May.
    4. Grogger, Jeffrey, 2002. "The Effects of Civil Gang Injunctions on Reported Violent Crime: Evidence from Los Angeles County," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(1), pages 69-90, April.
    5. Jeffrey R. Kling & Jens Ludwig & Lawrence F. Katz, 2005. "Neighborhood Effects on Crime for Female and Male Youth: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(1), pages 87-130.
    6. Christian A. L. Hilber & Wouter Vermeulen, 2016. "The Impact of Supply Constraints on House Prices in England," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 358-405, March.
    7. Rafael Di Tella & Sebastian Galiant & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2007. "The Formation of Beliefs: Evidence from the Allocation of Land Titles to Squatters," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 209-241.
    8. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    9. Brian Bell & Jack Blundell & Stephen Machin, 2023. "Where is the Land of Hope and Glory? The geography of intergenerational mobility in England and Wales," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 73-106, January.
    10. David H. Autor & Christopher J. Palmer & Parag A. Pathak, 2019. "Ending Rent Control Reduced Crime in Cambridge," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 381-384, May.
    11. 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.
    12. Joseph G. Altonji & Richard K. Mansfield, 2018. "Estimating Group Effects Using Averages of Observables to Control for Sorting on Unobservables: School and Neighborhood Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(10), pages 2902-2946, October.
    13. Disney, Richard & Luo, Guannan, 2017. "The Right to Buy public housing in Britain: A welfare analysis," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 51-68.
    14. Jens Ludwig & Jeffrey R. Kling, 2007. "Is Crime Contagious?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(3), pages 491-518.
    15. Anna Piil Damm & Christian Dustmann, 2014. "Does Growing Up in a High Crime Neighborhood Affect Youth Criminal Behavior?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1806-1832, June.
    16. Wim Bernasco & Thomas de Graaff & Jan Rouwendal & Wouter Steenbeek, 2017. "Social Interactions and Crime Revisited: An Investigation Using Individual Offender Data in Dutch Neighborhoods," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(4), pages 622-636, July.
    17. Roland G. Fryer & Lawrence F. Katz, 2013. "Achieving Escape Velocity: Neighborhood and School Interventions to Reduce Persistent Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 232-237, May.
    18. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin, 2015. "Crime and Economic Incentives," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 389-408, August.
    19. DiPasquale, Denise & Glaeser, Edward L., 1999. "Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 354-384, March.
    20. Steve Gibbons, 2004. "The Costs of Urban Property Crime," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(499), pages 441-463, November.
    21. Sandler, Danielle H., 2017. "Externalities of public housing: The effect of public housing demolitions on local crime," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 24-35.
    22. Ingrid Gould Ellen & Keren Mertens Horn & Davin Reed, 2017. "Has Falling Crime Invited Gentrification?," Working Papers 17-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    23. David Card & Richard Blundell & Richard B. Freeman, 2004. "Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number card04-1.
    24. Rebecca Diamond & Tim McQuade, 2019. "Who Wants Affordable Housing in Their Backyard? An Equilibrium Analysis of Low-Income Property Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(3), pages 1063-1117.
    25. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren, 2018. "The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1163-1228.
    26. Aliprantis, Dionissi & Hartley, Daniel, 2015. "Blowing it up and knocking it down: The local and city-wide effects of demolishing high concentration public housing on crime," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 67-81.
    27. Jo Blanden & Stephen Machin, 2017. "Home ownership and social mobility," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 508, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    28. Bell, Brian & Blundell, Jack & Machin, Stephen, 2018. "The changing geography of intergenerational mobility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91714, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    29. Lawrence F. Katz & Jeffrey R. Kling & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2001. "Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 607-654.
    30. Paul Gregg & Stephen Machin & Alan Manning, 2004. "Mobility and Joblessness," NBER Chapters, in: Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000, pages 371-410, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Eric Chyn, 2018. "Moved to Opportunity: The Long-Run Effects of Public Housing Demolition on Children," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(10), pages 3028-3056, October.
    32. Alonso, José M. & Andrews, Rhys & Jorda, Vanesa, 2019. "Do neighbourhood renewal programs reduce crime rates? Evidence from England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 51-69.
    33. Engelhardt, Gary V. & Eriksen, Michael D. & Gale, William G. & Mills, Gregory B., 2010. "What are the social benefits of homeownership? Experimental evidence for low-income households," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 249-258, May.
    34. Edgar O. Olsen, 2003. "Housing Programs for Low-Income Households," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 365-442, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 855-902, April.
    36. Sciandra, Matthew & Sanbonmatsu, Lisa & Duncan, Greg J. & Gennetian, Lisa A. & Katz, Lawrence F. & Kessler, Ronald & Kling, Jeffrey R. & Ludwig, Jens, 2013. "Long-Term Effects of the Moving to Opportunity Residential Mobility Experiment on Crime and Delinquency," Scholarly Articles 34222823, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    37. Gabriel Pons Rotger & George Charles Galster, 2019. "Neighborhood peer effects on youth crime: natural experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 655-676.
    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


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen B. Billings & Adam Soliman, 2023. "The erosion of homeownership and minority wealth," CEP Discussion Papers dp1967, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Manea, Roxana Elena & Piraino, Patrizio & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Disney & John Gathergood & Stephen Machin & Matteo Sandi, 2023. "Does Homeownership Reduce Crime? A Radical Housing Reform from the UK," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(655), pages 2640-2675.
    2. Christian A. L. Hilber & Olivier Schoni, 2022. "Housing policy and affordable housing," CEP Occasional Papers 56, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. John A. List & Fatemeh Momeni & Yves Zenou, 2020. "The Social Side of Early Human Capital Formation: Using a Field Experiment to Estimate the Causal Impact of Neighborhoods," Working Papers 2020-187, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    4. Chapelle, Guillaume & Domènech Arumí, Gerard & Gobbi, Paula Eugenia, 2023. "Housing, Neighborhoods and Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 17969, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Bence Boje-Kovacs & Jane Greve & Cecilie D. Weatherall, 2023. "Neighborhoods and mental health—evidence from a natural experiment in the public social housing sector," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 911-934, April.
    6. Boje-Kovacs, Bence & Egsgaard-Pedersen, Aske & Weatherall, Cecilie D., 2021. "Residential mobility and persistent neighborhood deprivation," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    7. Christian Dustmann & Mikkel Mertz & Anna Okatenko, 2023. "Neighbourhood Gangs, Crime Spillovers and Teenage Motherhood," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(653), pages 1901-1936.
    8. Ning Jia & Raven Molloy & Christopher Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2023. "The Economics of Internal Migration: Advances and Policy Questions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 144-180, March.
    9. Andrés Barrios-Fernández, 2022. "Neighbors' Effects on University Enrollment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 30-60, July.
    10. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 855-902, April.
    11. Tamar Ramot-Nyska, 2023. "Changing Residential Mobility Considerations: The Case of Public Housing in Israel," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2023.15, Bank of Israel.
    12. Xiaohe Zhou & Mingda Cheng & Chunhui Ye, 2023. "The Impact of Household Migration on the Intergenerational Educational Mobility: Based on the Perspective of Adolescent Development," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-13, March.
    13. Lorenzo Neri, 2020. "Moving Opportunities: The Impact of Public Housing Re-generations on Student Achievement," Working Papers 907, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    14. Chen, Liwen & Chung, Bobby W. & Wang, Guanghua, 2023. "Exposure to socially influential peer parents: Evidence from cadre parents in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Cassidy, Michael T., 2020. "A Closer Look: Proximity Boosts Homeless Student Performance in New York City," IZA Discussion Papers 13558, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Francesco Agostinelli & Matthias Doepke & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2020. "It Takes a Village: The Economics of Parenting with Neighborhood and Peer Effects," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2228, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    17. Gerard Domènech-Arumí & Paula Eugenia Gobbi & Glenn Magerman, 2022. "Housing Inequality and how Fiscal Policy shapes it: Evidence from Belgian Real Estate," Working Papers ECARES 2022-31, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Kim, Jun Sung & Lee, Jongkwan, 2019. "The role of intergenerational mobility in internal migration," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-15.
    19. Yukiko Abe & Mizuki Kawabata & Yuki Shibatsuji, 2019. "Spatial Clustering Patterns of Children in Single-Mother Households in Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2019-021, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    20. Claudia Olivetti & Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2020. "Mothers, Peers, and Gender-Role Identity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 266-301.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    crime; homeownership; public housing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1685. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion-papers/ .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.