Poverty and crime
Subtitle: evidence from rainfall and trade shocks in India
By: Lakshmi Iyer, Petia Topalova
Contributors: Topalova, Petia, author; Harvard Business School
Edition: Revised edition
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 14-067; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 14-067.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 31
Description: Does poverty lead to crime? We shed light on this question using two independent and exogenous shocks to household income in rural India: the dramatic reduction in import tariffs in the early 1990s and rainfall variations. We find that trade shocks, previously shown to raise relative poverty, also increased the incidence of violent crimes and property crimes. The relationship between trade shocks and crime is similar to the observed relationship between rainfall shocks and crime. Our results thus identify a causal effect of poverty on crime. They also lend credence to a large literature on the effects of weather shocks on crime and conflict, which has usually assumed that the income channel is the most relevant one.
Notes: "April 2014. (Revised August 2014.)" -- Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 24-28).