Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/146460 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IDB Working Paper Series No. IDB-WP-666
Publisher: 
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Washington, DC
Abstract: 
This paper examines how an infrastructure investment policy, implemented nationwide at the local level, has affected local crime rates. This policy, developed in the wake of the global recession of 2008-09, was designed to boost local economies through job creation. Using monthly figures from the Spanish region of Catalonia's more than 900 municipalities, the paper exploits geographic and time variation in the Spanish Ministry of Public Administration's random approvals of local investment policies, to estimate their impact on both (un)employment and crime. The combination of difference-in-differences and IV estimates makes it possible to precisely assess both the size and timing of the policy's impact on the local labor market and on municipal-level crime rates. While the policy apparently did not tackle the economic recession over the long run, local public finances did experience a boost over the short term, resulting in a temporary reduction in local unemployment rates (as legally required by the policy), as well as a significant drop in crime rates.
Subjects: 
Crime
Unemployment
Local investment Policies
Local economic development
JEL: 
K42
R53
H54
J40
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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