State Lotteries and Crime

The Regressive Revenue Producer Is Linked With a Crime Rate Higher by 3 Percent

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2789798
AutoresJohn Mikesell, John L Mikesell, Maureen A Pirog‐good (Indiana University Bloomington)
Ano1990
Volume49
Fascículo1
Páginas7-20
Data de publicação1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1536-7150.1990.tb02254.x
OpenAlexW1850228645
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas17

The impact of having a state lottery on the rate of crime against property in that state is estimated. Arguments in the standard economic model of criminal activity employed here include the unemployment rate, real income per capita, presence of the death penalty in the state as a proxy for general severity of punishment, police officers per capita, the percentage of population between the ages of 5 and 24, and the presence of a state lottery. Because the decision of a state to operate a lottery may correlate with crime rates, a selectivity model was run to extract any bias, but no such bias was found. The analysis used data for the 50 states plus the District of Columbia from 1970 through 1984. The results suggest that presence of a state lottery is associated with a crime rate higher by about 3 percent, an effect both statistically significant and practically important

Crime rate · Criminology · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Lottery · Microeconomics · Per capita · Population · Property crime · Proxy (statistics) · Punishment (psychology) · Sociology · State (computer science) · Statistics · Unemployment · Unemployment rate · Violent crime · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Demography · Gambling Behavior and Treatments · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology