All of Scioteca
Communities & Collections By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects Country / Region
Profiles
Our Authors
My Account
Login

Workfare and crime: evidence for Argentina

This paper investigates the effect of introducing a massive workfare program on property crimes. In order to circumvent the endogeneity problem common to joint factors determining crime and demand for workfare we make use of instrumental variables. We exploit two special features. First, the program was assigned according to political criteria which were trying to attract provinces and/or counties who were aligned with the national government. Second, the program was grant in mid-2002 and closed afterwards, so there were no new-comers to the program. We use political affiliation of different level of governments as instrument for the number of workfare programs per capita and find that the program reduced property crime but had no effect on other kinds of crime. The paper represents a contribution to the crime literature, since this issue has not been explored. If workfare programs have an effect on crime, then the welfare effect is different from the one often calculated in the literature.

Abstract

Description

Subject

Desarrollo social | Vivienda | Seguridad | Políticas públicas | Investigación socioeconómica | Trabajo y protección social

País / Región

Argentina

URI

https://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/220

Date

2011

Cite from this publication

Collections

6.1 Documentos de trabajo en investigación socioeconómica

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By

Creative Commons license

CC-BY-NC
Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as CC-BY-NC
Thumbnail Image

Files

201105Alzua.pdf (138.52 KB)

Authors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

CAF

Related Items

Thumbnail Image
Police reform, training and crime: experimental evidence from colombia's plan cuadrantes

The Plan Nacional de Vigilancia Comunitaria por Cuadrantes (PNVCC) is a new police patrolling program introduced in the eight major cities of Colombia in 2010...

Thumbnail Image
The pharmacological channel revisited: alcohol sales restrictions and crime in Bogotá

Our goal in this paper is twofold: First, evaluate the impact on crime of the restriction of latenight alcohol sales in Bogotá; and second, quantify...

Thumbnail Image
Preventing underage alcohol use through changes in norms and risk perception: A randomized evaluation of two school-based prevention programs in Colombia

This study evaluates the short-term impact of two school-based inter ventions designed to prevent alcohol use among children in high-risk schools in Bogotá, Colombia. The...

Thumbnail Image
Human Capital Consequences of Expanding the Supply of Higher Education Institutions in a Developing Country

Limited post-secondary infrastructure partly explains low higher education attainment in developing countries. This paper estimates the effects of a program that expanded university access by...

Thumbnail Image
Training or technical assistance? A field experiment to learn what works to increase managerial capital for female microentrepeneurs

This study evaluates the impacts of a business training program serving female microentrepreneurs in Lima that have previously benefited with the titling of their urban...

Thumbnail Image
Crime under Lockdown: The Impact of COVID-19 on Citizen Security in the City of Buenos Aires

This paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on criminal activity in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. We find...