Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics
No 381: Are Crime Rates Really Stationary?
Joakim Westerlund () and Johan Blomquist
Additional contact information
Joakim Westerlund: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG
Johan Blomquist: Lund University, Postal: Sweden
Abstract: Many empirical studies of the economics of crime focus solely on the determinants thereof, and do not consider the dynamic and cross-sectional properties of their data. As a response to this, the current paper offers an in-depth analysis of this issue using data covering 21 Swedish counties from 1975 to 2008. The results suggest that the four crime types considered are non-stationary, and that this cannot be attributed to county specific disparities, but rather that it is due to a small number of common stochastic trends to which clubs of counties tend to revert. The results further suggest that these trends can be given an macroeconomic interpretation. These findings are consistent with recent theoretical models predicting that crime should be dependent across both time and counties.
Keywords: Crime; Non-stationary data; Panel unit root tests; Common factor
37 pages, September 11, 2009
Full text files
21051 HTML file
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Ann-Christin Räätäri Nyström ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:11:22.