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Incentive and Incarceration Effects in a General Equilibrium Model of Crime

Author

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  • Persson, Mats

    (Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University)

  • Siven, Claes-Henric

    (Stockholm University)

Abstract

An intertemporal general equilibrium model of criminal behavior is used to analyze the effect on crime of changing policy parameters. The policy parameters are the length of the prison term, the severity of punishment, and the amount of police resources. The number of crimes in society can be decomposed into an incentive part, an incarceration part, and a crime competition part. The magnitudes of these three components are studied by means of empirical data from England and the US.

Suggested Citation

  • Persson, Mats & Siven, Claes-Henric, 2001. "Incentive and Incarceration Effects in a General Equilibrium Model of Crime," Seminar Papers 696, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iiessp:0696
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mats Persson, 2016. "Debts, Deficits and Multiple Equilibria: A New Role for ECB Monetary Policy?," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 17(1), pages 63-71, April.
    2. Eaton, B.Curtis & Wen, Jean-François, 2008. "Myopic deterrence policies and the instability of equilibria," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(3-4), pages 609-624, March.
    3. Baumann, Florian & Friehe, Tim, 2015. "Status concerns as a motive for crime?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 46-55.
    4. Basu,Kaushik, 2015. "The republic of beliefs : a new approach to ?law and economics?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7259, The World Bank.
    5. Persson, Mats & Siven, Claes-Henric, 2006. "The Becker Paradox and Type I vs. Type II Errors in the Economics of Crime," Research Papers in Economics 2006:1, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    6. Mats Persson, 2016. "Debts, Deficits and Multiple Equilibria: A New Role for ECB Monetary Policy?," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 17(01), pages 63-71, April.
    7. Adam Jacobsson & Alberto Naranjo, 2009. "Counter-intuitive effects of domestic law enforcement policies in the United States," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 323-343, November.
    8. John Smith & Olugbenga Ajilore, 2007. "Ethnic Fragmentation and Police Spending: Social Identity and a Public Good," Departmental Working Papers 200708, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crime; General Equilibrium; Incarceration; Incarceration effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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