Full Citation
Title: A Valuation of Specific Crime Rates
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2000
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Abstract: Evaluating the explicit costs of crime to society is a difficult task, as seen in the few number of researchers that have attempted to solve this problem. However two main approaches have emerged in these endeavors. The most tried technique has used hedonic models, dating back to Richard Thaler's "A Note on the Value of Crime Control: Evidence from the Property Market" in the Journal of Urban Economics (1978). Using this type of model, researchers have strived to isolate the value individuals place on specific amenities or disamenities, such as weather, air pollution and crime rates, as seen in the wages they require and the prices they pay for housing.The other technique evaluates these costs by combining the actual out-of-pocket expenses associated with crime with the imputed costs from the pain, suffering and fear endured by crime victims. Mark Cohen computed these values for specific crimes for the first time in "Pain, Suffering, and Jury Awards: A Study of the Cost of Crime to Victims" in Law and Society Review (1 988). Both methods have their limitations. The hedonic approach has allowed researchers to derive a value for an index measure of crime, but not for specific crimes. Cohen's technique allowed him to examine estimates for individual crimes, but not without sacrificing the market-based analysis of the hedonic models which estimates the costs of crime based on individuals' voluntary decisions.I combine these two methods to obtain a market-based estimate for specific crimes. Incorporating a data set I used for my article in Economic Inquiry (1998), I obtain detailed nationwide information on specific crimes committed at the county level.Expanding other researchers' use of the US Census Bureau's Population and Housing Surveys [Blomquist et al. (1988), Clark and Nieves (1994), Cragg and Kahn (1997), Kahn (1995) and Hoehn et al. (1987) just to name a few] with hedonic models, I use multiple decades of information obtained from counties across the United States to create a panel data set. With this data, I isolate the effects that individual crimes have on housing prices and wage rates, as seen by individuals' and households' preferences changing over time. I then place a dollar value on the benefit of specific crime reduction, as perceived by their willingness to pay.I follow this introductory section of the paper with a literature review, an explanation of methodology, a data preparation section, an analysis of the data and a concluding section.
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Authors: Bartley, Alan
Institution: Vanderbilt University
Department: Economics
Advisor: Mark Cohen
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Publisher Location: Nashville, TN
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Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Crime and Deviance
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