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Crime and Income Inequality: The Case of Malaysia

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  • Baharom, A.H.
  • Habibullah, M.S.

Abstract

This paper examines the causality between income inequality and crime in Malaysia for the period 1973-2003. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure is employed to (1) analyze the impact of income inequality on various categories of criminal activities as well as to (2) analyze the impact of various categories of criminal activities on income inequality. Interestingly our results indicate that income inequality has no meaningful relationship with any of the various categories of crime selected, such as total crime, violent crime, property crime, theft and burglary. Crime exhibits neither long-run nor short run relationships with income inequality and they are not cointegrated. It cannot be denied that there is ambiguity in the empirical studies of crime economics regarding various income variables leading to often mixed and contradicting results, which might be a good explanation of this finding.

Suggested Citation

  • Baharom, A.H. & Habibullah, M.S., 2008. "Crime and Income Inequality: The Case of Malaysia," MPRA Paper 11871, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:11871
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Siti Nur Zahara HAMZAH & Evan LAU, 2013. "The role of social factors in explaining crime," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(6(583)), pages 99-118, June.
    2. Li, Jing & Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Zhang, Xueliang, 2019. "Which indicator of income distribution explains crime better? Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 51-72.
    3. Lau, Evan & Hamzah, Siti Nur Zahara, 2012. "Crimonometric Analysis: Testing the Deterrence Hypothesis in Sabah," MPRA Paper 39297, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Chor Foon Tang, 2011. "An exploration of dynamic relationship between tourist arrivals, inflation, unemployment and crime rates in Malaysia," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(1), pages 50-69, January.
    5. Claudio Detotto & Manuela Pulina, 2013. "Does more crime mean fewer jobs and less economic growth?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 183-207, August.
    6. Abdul Hamid, Baharom & Habibullah, Muzafar & Mohd Noor, Zaleha, 2013. "Crime and Its Socio-Macroeconomics Determinants: A Panel-Error-Correction Cointegration Analysis," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 47(2), pages 13-24.
    7. Saleemi, Muhammad Waqar & Amir-ud-Din, Rafi, 2019. "How does quality of governance influence occurrence of crime? A longitudinal analysis of Asian countries," MPRA Paper 94142, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Najmeh Izadi, 2012. "The Effect of Income Inequality on Property Crime: Evidence from Iran," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 4(5), pages 245-251.
    9. Masri bin Abdul Lasi & Erman bin Yunusi, 2020. "Factors Influencing High Crime Rate in Kuala Lumpur Urban Community," International Journal of Publication and Social Studies, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(2), pages 147-153, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income inequality; crime; bounds testing; Malaysia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General

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