Welfare Payments and Crime
46 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2008 Last revised: 7 Jun 2009
There are 2 versions of this paper
Welfare Payments and Crime
Welfare Payments and Crime
Date Written: June 4, 2009
Abstract
Analysis of daily reported incidents of major crimes in twelve U.S. cities reveals an increase in crime over the course of monthly welfare payment cycles. This increase reflects an increase in crimes that are likely to have a direct financial motivation like burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and robbery, as opposed to other kinds of crime like arson, assault, homicide, and rape. Temporal patterns in crime are observed in jurisdictions in which disbursements are focused at the beginning of monthly welfare payment cycles and not in jurisdictions in which disbursements are relatively more staggered. These findings indicate that welfare beneficiaries consume welfare related income quickly and then attempt to supplement it with criminal income.
Keywords: welfare, crime, household finance, behavioral economics
JEL Classification: K42, D12, I38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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