The Dark Side of the Shale Boom– County Level

Abstract

Literature relates the sudden expansion of tight oil and shale gas in the United States with higher employment and income. In this work, we investigate the disamenities due to the shale boom— the effects of the shale boom on local crime. Based on all the counties in the US, we find places with higher shale activities are associated with higher crime. Our preferred instrumental variable estimates suggest a one percent increase in new drilling activity is associated with a 5.9 percent increase in total crime. The increase in rape and assault crime seems to be the main driver of the rise in total crime. This work contributes to the broad literature related to the natural resource curse.

Keywords: Shale boom, Local crime, Natural resources curse