Abstract
Crime is obviously a menace to economic growth and progress, but to acutely understand the enormity of its impact on economic performance for effective policy action, requires a credible means of measurement. Given the crime notoriety of the most of Central America and the struggling state of their economies, this article attempts to discern from econometric evaluation and analyses, the calculable economic impact of crime on the region’s economic progress. From analyses of results, we find the model to be credible and useful following its provision of a much more accurate degree to which crime affects economic performance in Central America, which we find critical to guide policy measures.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Becker, G.S.: Crime and punishment: an economic approach. J. Polit. Econ. 76(2), 169–217 (1968)
Bertrand, M., Duflo, E., Mullainathan, S.: How much should we trust differences-in-differences estimates? Quart. J. Econ. 119(1), 249–275 (2004)
Cameron, S.: The economics of crime deterrence: A survey of theory and evidence. Kyklos, 41(2), 301–323 (1988)
Cornwell, C., Trumbull, W.: Estimating the economic model of crime with panel data. Rev. Econ. Stat. 76(2), 360–366 (1994)
Costa, A.M.: The economics of crime: a discipline to be invented and a nobel prize to be awarded. J. Policy Model. 32(5), 648–661 (2010)
Dills, A.K., Miron, J.A., Summers, G.: What do economist know about crime? NBER Working paper W13759 (2008)
Freeman, R.B.: The economics of crime. In: Ashenfelter, O., Card, D. (eds.) Handbook of Labor Economics, vol. 3. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1999)
Goldstein, P.J.: The drugs/violence nexus: a tripartite conceptual framework. J. Drug Issues 15, 493–506 (1985)
International Monetary Fund (IMF): Statistics section. Retrieved from: www.imf.org (2013)
Macias, J.B., Meredith, G., Hollar, I.V.: Growth performance. In: Desruelle, D., Schipke, A. (eds.) Economic Growth and Integration in Central America. International Monetary Fund, Washington DC (2007)
Passell, P., Taylor, J.B.: The deterrent effect of capital punishment: another view. Am. Econ. Rev. 67(3), 445–451 (1977)
Ruiz Estrada, M.A., Ndoma, A.: How crime affects economic performance: the case of Guatemala. J. Policy Model. 36(5), 867–882 (2014)
United Nations (UN): United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report. Retrieved from: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ (2013)
Villalobos, J.: Violence in Central America. In: Zedillo, E., Wheeler, H. (eds.) Rethinking the “War on Drugs” through the US-Mexico prism. Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, New Heaven (2012)
World Bank (WB): Statistics section. Retrieved from: http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/modules/basicdata/datanotbasic.html (2013)
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their utmost appreciation for the useful information supplied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Estrada, M.A.R., Ndoma, I. Assessing the impact of crime on the economic performance: the case of central america. Qual Quant 50, 1201–1211 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0198-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0198-9