IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcecon/v46y2018i2p413-435.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does crime deter South Africans from self-employment?

Author

Listed:
  • Grabrucker, Katharina
  • Grimm, Michael

Abstract

The very high crime rate in South African cities is often argued to be the main reason for the country's small share of business ownership and self-employment. This paper revisits this hypothesis. We estimate the effect of crime on business ownership and performance using a matched dataset of census, survey and police data. In contrast to previous studies, which take into account perceived rather than actual crime and often focus on specific geographic areas, we do not find robust evidence that high crime rates have a negative impact on business ownership. Even though our estimate of the effect of crime is statistically significant and negative, it is economically small. Further, we find no evidence for a negative effect of actual crime on sales, profits and investment of informal businesses. This may imply that the low share of business ownership and self-employment in South Africa must have other reasons. These results may also suggest that crime may not be in general a serious threat for small businesses in low and middle-income countries, however, this needs further empirical research.

Suggested Citation

  • Grabrucker, Katharina & Grimm, Michael, 2018. "Does crime deter South Africans from self-employment?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 413-435.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:46:y:2018:i:2:p:413-435
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2017.11.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596717300781
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jce.2017.11.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David McKenzie, 2010. "Impact Assessments in Finance and Private Sector Development: What Have We Learned and What Should We Learn?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 25(2), pages 209-233, August.
    2. James R. Tybout, 2000. "Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well Do They Do, and Why?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 11-44, March.
    3. Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "The Regulation of Entry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 1-37.
    4. Pablo Fajnzylber & William Maloney & Gabriel Montes Rojas, 2006. "Microenterprise Dynamics in Developing Countries: How Similar are They to Those in the Industrialized World? Evidence from Mexico," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(3), pages 389-419.
    5. Grimm, Michael & Knorringa, Peter & Lay, Jann, 2012. "Constrained Gazelles: High Potentials in West Africa’s Informal Economy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1352-1368.
    6. Asif Islam, 2014. "Economic growth and crime against small and medium sized enterprises in developing economies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 677-695, October.
    7. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January.
    8. McKenzie, David J & Woodruff, Christopher, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 3-42, October.
    9. Grimm, Michael & Paffhausen, Anna Luisa, 2015. "Do interventions targeted at micro-entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized firms create jobs? A systematic review of the evidence for low and middle income countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 67-85.
    10. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413, January.
    11. Glaeser, Edward L. & Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2010. "Urban economics and entrepreneurship," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Steve Gibbons, 2004. "The Costs of Urban Property Crime," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(499), pages 441-463, November.
    13. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Ross, Amanda, 2010. "Violent crime, entrepreneurship, and cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 135-149, January.
    14. BenYishay, Ariel & Pearlman, Sarah, 2014. "Crime and Microenterprise Growth: Evidence from Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 139-152.
    15. Gordon Betcherman, 2015. "Labor Market Regulations: What do we know about their Impacts in Developing Countries?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(1), pages 124-153.
    16. World Bank, 2015. "World Development Indicators 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21634.
    17. William Greene, 2004. "The behaviour of the maximum likelihood estimator of limited dependent variable models in the presence of fixed effects," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 7(1), pages 98-119, June.
    18. Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi & Knight, John, 2004. "Unemployment in South Africa: The Nature of the Beast," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 391-408, March.
    19. World Bank, 2016. "World Development Indicators 2016," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 23969.
    20. Julie Berry Cullen & Steven D. Levitt, 1999. "Crime, Urban Flight, And The Consequences For Cities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 159-169, May.
    21. Eric D. Gould & Bruce A. Weinberg & David B. Mustard, 2002. "Crime Rates And Local Labor Market Opportunities In The United States: 1979-1997," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 45-61, February.
    22. Suresh de Mel & David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2009. "Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 423-423.
    23. McPherson, Michael A., 1996. "Growth of micro and small enterprises in southern Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 253-277, March.
    24. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin, 2015. "Crime and Economic Incentives," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 389-408, August.
    25. Matthew E. Kahn, 2010. "New Evidence on Trends in the Cost of Urban Agglomeration," NBER Chapters, in: Agglomeration Economics, pages 339-354, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Edward L. Glaeser & Stuart S. Rosenthal & William C. Strange, 2010. "Cities and Entrepreneurship," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number glae09-1.
    27. Diao, Xinshen & Harttgen, Kenneth & McMillan, Margaret S., 2017. "The changing structure of Africa’s economies," IFPRI discussion papers 1598, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    28. Xinshen Diao & Kenneth Harttgen & Margaret McMillan, 2017. "The Changing Structure of Africa’s Economies," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 412-433.
    29. Michael C. Lens & Rachel Meltzer, 2016. "Is Crime Bad For Business? Crime And Commercial Property Values In New York City," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 442-470, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ankel-Peters, Jörg & Bruederle, Anna & Roberts, Gareth, 2022. "Weather and Crime—Cautious evidence from South Africa," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 3(1), pages 1-22.
    2. Kishan Shah, 2022. "Diagnosing South Africa’s High Unemployment and Low Informality," Growth Lab Working Papers 193, Harvard's Growth Lab.
    3. Kishan Shah, 2022. "Diagnosing South Africa’s High Unemployment and Low Informality," CID Working Papers 138a, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    4. Norling, Johannes, 2020. "Education and employment following apartheid protests," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reeg, Caroline, 2015. "Micro and small enterprises as drivers for job creation and decent work," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    2. Victor Motta, 2017. "The impact of crime on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(5), pages 993-1010, August.
    3. Arthur Acolin & Rebecca J. Walter & Marie Skubak Tillyer & Johanna Lacoe & Raphael Bostic, 2022. "Spatial spillover effects of crime on private investment at nearby micro-places," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(4), pages 834-850, March.
    4. Hua, Nan & Yang, Yang, 2017. "Systematic effects of crime on hotel operating performance," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 257-269.
    5. David N Margolis, 2014. "By Choice and by Necessity: Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment in the Developing World," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 419-436, September.
    6. Negrete Garcia, Ana Karen, 2018. "Constrained Potential: A Characterisation of Mexican Microenterprises," GIGA Working Papers 309, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    7. Folorunsho M. Ajide & Olasupo I. Bankefa & Rufus A. Ajisafe, 2018. "Criminal Activities and Firms’ Market Power: Evidence from Nigerian Banking Industry," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(5), pages 1207-1223, October.
    8. Braakmann, Nils, 2012. "The effect of the 2011 London riots on crime, policing and unemployment," MPRA Paper 44883, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Oriana Bandiera & Ahmed Elsayed & Andrea Smurra & Céline Zipfel, 2022. "Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 81-100, Winter.
    10. Sloan, CarlyWill & Caudill, Steven B. & Mixon, Franklin G., 2016. "Entrepreneurship and crime: The case of new restaurant location decisions," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 19-26.
    11. Dodlova, Marina & Göbel, Kristin & Grimm, Michael & Lay, Jann, 2015. "Constrained firms, not subsistence activities: Evidence on capital returns and accumulation in Peruvian microenterprises," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 94-110.
    12. Maksim Belitski & Julia Korosteleva & Julia Korosteleva, 2012. "Entrepreneurial Dynamics and Higher Education Institutions: Evidence from the Post-Communist World," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 120, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    13. Phillips, David C. & Sandler, Danielle, 2015. "Does public transit spread crime? Evidence from temporary rail station closures," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 13-26.
    14. Julia Korosteleva & Maksim Belitski, 2017. "Entrepreneurial dynamics and higher education institutions in the post-Communist world," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 439-453, March.
    15. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    16. Grimm, Michael & Knorringa, Peter & Lay, Jann, 2012. "Constrained Gazelles: High Potentials in West Africa’s Informal Economy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1352-1368.
    17. Agrawal, David R., 2016. "Local fiscal competition: An application to sales taxation with multiple federations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 122-138.
    18. André Filipe Guedes Almeida & Gabriel Caldas Montes, 2020. "Effects of crime and violence on business confidence: evidence from Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(7), pages 1669-1688, May.
    19. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Drivers of entrepreneurship and post-entry performance : microeconomic evidence from advanced and developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6245, The World Bank.
    20. Jean-Philippe Berrou & Damien Girollet, 2019. "A la recherche des « gazelles » du secteur informel urbain africain. Entreprises et entrepreneurs à fort potentiel dans leur environnement socioéconomique et numérique," Working Papers hal-02507441, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crime; Cities; Entrepreneurship; Informal sector; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market
    • K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:46:y:2018:i:2:p:413-435. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622864 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.