Unemployment or Inflation? What Does the Misery Index Say about the Causes of Crime?

Abstract

Even if the analysis of illegal activities takes attention after the 1960s in economics, the cause and consequence of crime is an old subject for social sciences. The first period of crime and economics analysis was micro-based theories focusing on a person’s intensive for illegal activities. However, in recent years macroeconomics based analysis gain weight in literature instead of micro-based cost-benefit analysis of crime. The study examines the misery index and crime linkages for the 'Fragile Five', using dynamic panel data analysis for 2004-2017. It is found that the increases in the index of misery cause rising crime rate