Crime and poverty: A search-theoretic approach

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Huang, CC; Laing, D; Wang, P
• 署名单位: Vanderbilt University; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/j.0020-6598.2004.00291.x
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 909-938
• 关键词: money

摘要

Numerous studies document that criminal activity is positively related to unemployment and negatively related to educational attainment levels within given communities. We study this phenomenon in the context of a search-equilibrium model, in which agents choose between formal employment and pursuing crime-related activities (theft). Prior to their occupational choices agents undertake costly schooling, raising their productivity. Crime acts, in essence, as a tax on human capital by affecting the probability that a worker's earnings (possessions) are subsequently appropriated. There are multiple equilibria. High crime, low levels of educational attainment, long spells of unemployment, and poverty are correlated across them.