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Neighborhood Violence, Poverty, and Psychological Well-Being

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  • Alloush, Mo
  • Bloem, Jeffrey R.

Abstract

We estimate the relationship between neighborhood violence and psychological well-being using nationally representative panel data from South Africa. We use data on household-level perceptions of neighborhood violence as well as reported crimes and local media reports to measure violence. First, we find the poor live in neighborhoods that they perceive to have higher levels of violence and have objectively more violence. Second, higher levels of both perceived and objective violence are strongly linked to elevated depressive symptoms and an increased likelihood of being at risk of depression. Finally, we show that living in urban neighborhoods with high levels of violence while poor is predictive of future poverty in our sample.
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  • Alloush, Mo & Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2020. "Neighborhood Violence, Poverty, and Psychological Well-Being," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304341, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea20:304341
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.304341
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    2. Nelly Exbrayat & Victor Stephane, 2024. "Does Urbanization Cause Crime? Evidence from Rural-Urban Migration in South Africa," Working Papers halshs-04390026, HAL.
    3. Alem, Yonas & Tato, Gidisa Lachisa, 2022. "Shocks and Mental Health: Panel Data Evidence from South Africa," EfD Discussion Paper 22-1, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    4. Jeffrey R. Bloem & Andrew J. Oswald, 2022. "The Analysis of Human Feelings: A Practical Suggestion for a Robustness Test," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(3), pages 689-710, September.
    5. Roychowdhury, Punarjit, 2024. "Social Identity and Depression Among the Elderly: Evidence from India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1466, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Hidrobo, Melissa & Karachiwalla, Naureen & Roy, Shalini, 2023. "The impacts of cash transfers on mental health and investments: Experimental evidence from Mali," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 608-630.
    7. Sharma, Smriti & Sunder, Naveen, 2024. "Crime and Human Capital in India," IZA Discussion Papers 17037, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Hernando Grueso, 2024. "Heterogeneous effects of violence on student achievement: Evidence from Colombia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 1536-1569, March.
    9. Alem, Yonas & Tato, Gidisa Lachisa, 2023. "Shocks and mental health: Panel data evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Development; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Risk and Uncertainty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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