The Crime Kuznets Curve (La curva de Kuznets del Crimen)

Abstract

English Abstract: We document the existence of a Crime Kuznets Curve in US states since the 1970s. As in come level shave risen, crime has followed an inverted U-shaped pattern, first increasing and then dropping. The Crime Kuznets Curve is not explained by income inequality. In fact, we show that during the sample period inequality has risen monotonically with income, ruling out the traditional Kuznets Curve. Our finding is robust to adding a large set of controls that are used in the literature to explain the incidence of crime, as well as to controlling for state and year fixed effects. The Curve is also revealed in nonparametric specifications. The Crime Kuznets Curve exists for property crime and for some categories of violent crime.

Spanish Abstract: Demostramos la existenciade una Curva de Kuznets del Crimenenlos Estados Unidosdes de 1970. A medida que los niveles de ingreso han aumentado, el crimen ha seguido una trayectoria de U invertida, incrementandose inicialmente y despues cayendo. La Curvade Kuznets del crimen no esta explicada por la desigualdad del ingreso. De hecho, durante nuestro periodo muestral, la desigualdad ha crecido de forma monotona con el ingreso, descartando la presencia de una Curva de Kuznets tradicional. Nuestro resultado es robusto a la inclusion de un conjunto grande de controles usados frecuentemente en la literatura para explicar la incidencia del crimen, ademas de efectos fijos de estado y ano. La Curva es tambien evidente en especificaciones no parametricas. La Curva de Kuznets del Crimen existe para crımenes contra la propiedad y algunas categorıas de crimen violento.

Keywords: Crime Kuznets Curve, Income inequality, Non-parametric Kernel analysis

JEL Classification: K42, D63