Ítem
Acceso Abierto
Economic shocks and crime: evidence from the crash of ponzi schemes
Título de la revista
Autores
Cortés Cortés, Darwin
Santamaría, Julieth
Vargas Duque, Juan Fernando
Fecha
2016-03-14
Directores
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Universidad del Rosario
Citations
Métricas alternativas
Resumen
Abstract
In November 2008, Colombian authorities dismantled a network of Ponzi schemes,
making hundreds of thousands of investors lose tens of millions of dollars throughout
the country. Using original data on the geographical incidence of the Ponzi schemes,
this paper estimates the impact of their break down on crime. We find that the crash
of Ponzi schemes differentially exacerbated crime in affected districts. Confirming
the intuition of the standard economic model of crime, this effect is only present in
places with relatively weak judicial and law enforcement institutions, and with little
access to consumption smoothing mechanisms such as microcredit. In addition, we
show that, with the exception of economically-motivated felonies such as robbery,
violent crime is not affected by the negative shock.
Palabras clave
Keywords
Ponzi schemes , Economic shocks , Property crime , Colombia
