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Poverty and Crime: Evidence from Rainfall and Trade Shocks in India

SSRN Electronic Journal
2014
  • 47
    Citations
  • 13,148
    Usage
  • 114
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    47
    • Citation Indexes
      33
    • Policy Citations
      14
      • Policy Citation
        14
  • Usage
    13,148
    • Abstract Views
      10,697
    • Downloads
      2,451
  • Captures
    114
  • Ratings
    • Download Rank
      11,783

Article 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.

Bibliographic Details

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