Does education reduce criminal activities? An aggregated empirical approach in Chile.

Authors

  • Leonidas Hernandez Departamento de Economía, Universidad Católica del Norte
  • Alicia Chavez Departamento de Economía, Universidad Católica del Norte
  • Gabriel Rodriguez-Puello Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), Jönköping University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60758/mnc73b03

Keywords:

Human capital, Crime, Schooling, Developing countries, Spatial analysis

Abstract

Social returns of education are all the benefits that accrue to society resulting from an increase in the overall level of education of its citizens. This paper addresses the relationship between regional criminal activities and the educational level in a city. We hypothesize that, at the aggregated level, higher education is related with low levels of criminal activities. We focus on Chile as a study case and build an unbalanced panel data from 2006 to 2017 with an average of 321 municipalities. We find that high human capital deters regional criminal activities while low human capital does not.

References

Andresen, M. A., Ha, O. K., & Davies, G. (2021). Spatially Varying Unemployment and Crime Effects in the Long Run and Short Run. The Professional Geographer, 73(2), 297-311.

Anselin, L. (1995). Local Indicators of Spatial Association—LISA. Geographical Analysis, 27(2), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1538-4632.1995.tb00338.x

Anselin, L., Sridharan, S., & Gholston, S. (2007). Using exploratory spatial data analysis to leverage social indicator databases: The discovery of interesting patterns. Social Indicators Research, 82(2), 287–309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9034-x

Becker, G. S. (1968). Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. Journal of Political Economy, 76(2), 169–217. https://doi.org/10.1086/259394

Benavente, J. M., & Melo, E. (2006). Determinantes socio económicos de la criminalidad en chile durante los noventa (No. 223; Documento de Trabajo).

Berthelon, M. E., & Kruger, D. I. (2011). Risky behavior among youth: Incapacitation effects of school on adolescent motherhood and crime in Chile. Journal of Public Economics, 95(1–2), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JPUBECO.2010.09.004

Broxterman, D. A., & Larson, W. D. (2020). An empirical examination of shift-share instruments. Journal of Regional Science, 60(4), 677–711. https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12481

Buonanno, P., & Leonida, L. (2009). Non-market effects of education on crime: Evidence from Italian regions. Economics of Education Review, 28(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2007.09.012

Chávez, A., & Rodríguez-Puello, G. (2022). Commodity price shocks and the gender wage gap: Evidence from the Metal Mining Prices Super-Cycle in Chile. Resources Policy, 76, 102497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102497

Cherry, T. L., & List, J. A. (2002). Aggregation bias in the economic model of crime. Economics Letters, 75(1), 81–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1765(01)00597-3

Crown, B. D., Faggian, A., & Corcoran, J. (2020). High skilled immigration and the occupational choices of native workers: The case of Australia. Oxford Economic Papers, 72(3), 585–605. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpaa009

Cuesta, J. I., & Illanes, G. (2010). On the Determinants of Crime: A Spatial Perspective. Mimeo.

Doyle, J. M., Ahmed, E., & Horn, R. N. (1999). The Effects of Labor Markets and Income Inequality on Crime: Evidence from Panel Data. Southern Economic Journal, 65(4), 717–738. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00196.x

Florax, R. J. G. M., Folmer, H., & Rey, S. J. (2003). Specification searches in spatial econometrics: The relevance of Hendry’s methodology. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 33(5), 557–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-0462(03)00002-4

Gallego, F. A. (2012). Skill Premium in Chile: Studying Skill Upgrading in the South. World Development, 40(3), 594–609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.07.009

Gutiérrez, M., Núñez, J., & Rivera, J. (2009). Socio-economic and geographic profiling of crime in Chile. CEPAL Review, 2009(98), 159–174. https://doi.org/10.18356/F96DA77D-EN

Lochner, L. (2004). Education, work, and crime: A human capital approach. International Economic Review, 45(3), 811–843. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-6598.2004.00288.x

Lochner, L. (2020). Education and crime. In S. Bradley & C. Green (Eds.), The Economics of Education: A Comprehensive Overview (Second, pp. 109–117). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815391-8.00009-4

Lochner, L., & Moretti, E. (2004). The effect of education on crime: Evidence from prison inmates, arrests, and self-reports. American Economic Review, 94(1), 155–189. https://doi.org/10.1257/000282804322970751

Mincer, J. (1962). On-the-Job Training: Costs, Returns, and Some Implications. Journal of Political Economy, 70(5, Part 2), 50–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/258725

Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública. (2014). Plan Nacional de Seguridad Pública y Prevención de la Violencia y el Delito, Seguridad para Todos. In Plan Nacional de Seguridad Pública y Prevención de la Violencia y el Delito, Seguridad para Todos (pp. 1–96). www.seguridadpublica.gov.cl

Moretti, E. (2004a). Estimating the social return to higher education: Evidence from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional data. Journal of Econometrics, 121(1–2), 175–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2003.10.015

Moretti, E. (2004b). Human capital externalities in cities. In J. V. Thisse & J. V. Henderson (Eds.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics (Vol. 4, pp. 2243–2291). Elsevier B.V. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0080(04)80008-7

Moretti, E., & Thulin, P. (2013). Local multipliers and human capital in the united states and sweden. Industrial and Corporate Change, 22(1), 339–362. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dts051

Nguyen, H. T. M. (2019). Do more educated neighbourhoods experience less property crime? Evidence from Indonesia. International Journal of Educational Development, 64, 27–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.12.005

OECD. (2022a). Average wages (indicator). https://doi.org/10.1787/cc3e1387-en

OECD. (2022b). Population with tertiary education (indicator). https://doi.org/10.1787/0b8f90e9-en

Raphael, S., & Winter-Ebmer, R. (2001). Identifying the effect of unemployment on crime. Journal of Law and Economics, 44(1), 259–283. https://doi.org/10.1086/320275

Raphael, S., & Winter-Ebmer, R. (2015). Identifying the Effect of Unemployment on Crime*. Https://Doi.Org/10.1086/320275, 44(1), 259–283. https://doi.org/10.1086/320275

Speziale, N. (2014). Does unemployment increase crime? Evidence from Italian provinces. Applied Economics Letters, 21(15), 1083–1089. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2014.909568

Downloads

Published

2024-09-11

Issue

Section

Regular articles

How to Cite

Does education reduce criminal activities? An aggregated empirical approach in Chile. (2024). Latin American Economic Review, 33. https://doi.org/10.60758/mnc73b03