Income Inequality and Violent Crime: Evidence from Mexico’s Drug War

doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.004

Publication:
Income Inequality and Violent Crime: Evidence from Mexico’s Drug War

dc.contributor.author	Enamorado, Ted
dc.contributor.author	López-Calva, Luis F.
dc.contributor.author	Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos
dc.contributor.author	Winkler, Hernán
dc.date.accessioned	2016-08-10T18:59:10Z
dc.date.available	2016-08-10T18:59:10Z
dc.date.issued	2016-05
dc.description.abstract	The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of inequality on crime rates in a unique context, Mexico's drug war. The analysis exploits an original dataset containing inequality and crime statistics on more than 2000 Mexican municipalities over a 20-year period. To uncover the causal effect of inequality on crime, we use an instrumental variable for the Gini coefficient that combines the initial income distribution at the municipality level with national trends. Our estimates indicate that a one-point increment in the Gini coefficient between 2007 and 2010 translates into an increase of more that 36% in the number of drug-related homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The fact that the effect found during the drug war is substantially greater is likely caused by the rise in rents to be extracted through crime and an expansion in the employment opportunities in the illegal sector through the proliferation of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), accompanied by a decline in legal job opportunities and a reduction in the probability of being caught given the resource constraints faced by the law enforcement system. Combined, the latter factors made the expected benefits of criminal activity shift in a socially undesirable direction after 2007.	en
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Development Economics
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/24872
dc.identifier.issn	0308-3878
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/24872
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Elsevier
dc.rights	CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/
dc.subject	poverty
dc.subject	income inequality
dc.subject	crime
dc.subject	Gini coefficient
dc.subject	drug war
dc.subject	drug trafficking
dc.title	Income Inequality and Violent Crime	en
dc.title.subtitle	Evidence from Mexico’s Drug War	en
dc.type	Journal Article	en
dc.type	Article de journal	fr
dc.type	Artículo de revista	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.associatedcontent	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387815001364 Journal website (version of record)
okr.crossref.title	Income Inequality and Violent Crime: Evidence from Mexico’s Drug War
okr.date.disclosure	2019-01-20
okr.doctype	Publications & Research::Journal Article
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.externalcontent	External Content
okr.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.004
okr.identifier.doi	10.1596/24872
okr.identifier.report	108327
okr.journal.nbpages	128-43
okr.language.supported	en
okr.peerreview	Academic Peer Review
okr.region.administrative	Latin America & Caribbean
okr.region.country	Mexico
okr.topic	Law and Development::Law Enforcement Systems
okr.topic	Poverty Reduction::Inequality
okr.topic	Social Development::Crime and Society
okr.volume	120
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	4a5ab8d0-522b-5033-8fc3-5372cdcf7860
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	2617abbe-b7ff-5678-991a-85d4f9583656
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	6b2974ae-b71a-507e-ad52-3881bd3a0605
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	6b2974ae-b71a-507e-ad52-3881bd3a0605