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    Which Dimension of Income Distribution Drives Crime? Evidence from the People's Republic of China

    Wang, Chen; Wan, Guanghua; Zhang, Xueliang | March 2017
    Abstract
    Income distribution is perceived to affect crime (Becker 1968; Thurow 1971; Merlo 2003). Consequently, economists have been modeling crime-employing inequality indicators as one of the explanatory variables, yielding mixed results. This paper argues that income polarization rather than inequality should be taken into account in the context of crime analysis. Technically, in addition to income gaps as captured by inequality indicators, the recently developed polarization index of Duclos, Esteban, and Ray (2004) also measures social segregation, which implies immobility and alienation, both of which are closely related to social tensions and conflicts. Thus, this polarization index is expected to be a better variable in explaining crime. To substantiate our arguments, provincial panel data from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are used to model the crime–income distribution relationship. Income polarization is found to be positively and significantly associated with crime. When both income polarization and inequality indicators are included in the models, the former remains a positive and significant determinant while the latter becomes insignificant.
    Citation
    Wang, Chen; Wan, Guanghua; Zhang, Xueliang. 2017. Which Dimension of Income Distribution Drives Crime? Evidence from the People's Republic of China. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/7712.
    Keywords
    Income Distribution
    Demographic Indicators
    Social Justice
    Price stabilization
    Food prices
    Price policy
    Poverty Analysis
    Participatory Poverty Assessment
    Poverty Reduction Strategy
    Extreme Poverty
    Economic development
    Growth And Poverty
    Social change
    Social accounting
    Inequality of income
    Economic growth
    Qualilty of Life
    Open price system
    Price fixing
    Price regulation
    Consumer price indexes
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    Citable URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11540/7712
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    Author
    Wang, Chen
    Wan, Guanghua
    Zhang, Xueliang
    Theme
    Poverty
    Economics
    Labor Migration
     
    Copyright 2016-2021 Asian Development Bank Institute, except as explicitly marked otherwise
    Copyright 2016-2021 Asian Development Bank Institute, except as explicitly marked otherwise