Abstract

There is a well-established literature that finds a strong causal association between remittance flows and economic growth and poverty. Owing to the poverty-alleviating and income-generating effects of remittances, it may theoretically reduce crime by increasing the opportunity cost of committing crime. This paper studies the effects of remittance receipts on crime outcomes in India. The identification strategy, exploits the variation in rainfall as an instrument for remittance receipts. The results suggest that remittance receipts have a negative effect on violent crimes and a positive effect on nonviolent crimes. Since remittance flows mean that more economic resources are available, remittances provide an incentive for certain crimes that thrive in the presence of economic resources. Therefore, an important implication of this result is that as remittance receipts increase income and welfare, there is a diverse effect on the costs and benefits of different types of crimes. It may result in unfavorable outcomes in the form of increases in certain nonviolent crimes.

中文翻译：

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汇款对印度犯罪的影响

摘要

有完善的文献发现汇款流量与经济增长和贫困之间存在很强的因果关系。由于汇款的减轻贫困和创收作用，从理论上讲，它可以通过增加犯罪的机会成本来减少犯罪。本文研究了汇款收据对印度犯罪结果的影响。识别策略利用降雨的变化作为汇款收入的一种手段。结果表明，汇款收据对暴力犯罪有消极影响，对非暴力犯罪有积极影响。由于汇款流动意味着有更多的经济资源可供使用，因此汇款为某些犯罪提供了诱因，这些犯罪在存在经济资源的情况下壮成长。所以，该结果的重要含义是，随着汇款收入增加收入和福利，对不同类型犯罪的成本和收益产生不同的影响。它可能以增加某些非暴力犯罪的形式导致不利的结果。