Crime and Economic Incentives
利用1975-1996年英格兰和威尔士的警察辖区数据，发现低技能工人工资下降会导致犯罪率上升，同时威慑措施和犯罪回报也显著影响犯罪，表明经济激励在犯罪决策中起核心作用。
We explore the role that economic incentives, particularly changes in wages at the bottom end of the wage distribution, play in determining crime rates.We use data on the police force areas of England and Wales between 1975 and 1996.We find that falls in the wages of unskilled workers leads to increases in crime.We carry out a number of experiments with different wage measures, including a wage measure that accounts for the effects of changes in the composition of employment.These reinforce the picture of a strong impact of wages on crime.The result that incentives play a central role is reinforced further by the strong impact on crime of deterrence measures and of a measure of the returns to crime.