Seminar ISER Internal Seminars
The Impact of Social Capital on Crime: Evidence from the Netherlands
- Date and time
- Starts:
- Presented by
- Semih Akcomak (ECASS visitor, Department of Economics and UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University)
This paper investigates the relation between social capital and crime. By
employing current and historical data for Dutch municipalities and by
providing novel indicators to measure social capital, we find a causal link
between social capital and crime. Our results suggest that higher levels of
social capital are associated with lower crime rates and that
municipalities’ historical states in terms of population heterogeneity,
religiosity and education affect current levels of social capital.