Citation

Neumayer E. J. Peace Res. 2005; 42(1): 101-112.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0022343305049669

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article argues that the link between income inequality and violent property crime might be spurious, complementing a similar argument in prior analysis by the author on the determinants of homicide. In contrast, Fajnzylber, Lederman & Loayza provide seemingly strong and robust evidence that inequality causes a higher rate of both homicide and robbery/violent theft, even after controlling for country-specific fixed effects. The results in the present article suggest that inequality is not a statistically significant determinant, unless either country-specific effects are not controlled for or the sample is artificially restricted to a small number of countries. The reason for the link between inequality and violent property crime being spurious is that income inequality is likely to be strongly correlated with country-specific fixed effects, such as cultural differences. A high degree of inequality might be socially undesirable for any number of reasons, but that it causes violent crime is far from proven.