2021/01/01 by Willy W. Cortez, Cortez, Willy W., Áurea Esther Grijalva Eternod +1
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Social Sciences · #Agricultural and Food Production Studies #Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance #Latin American Urban Studies #composición familiar #delincuencia #desigualdad en el ingreso #municipios #pobreza
paper · pdf · doi:10.29265/gypp.v30i1.812
openalex publication_date 2021/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
In Mexico, evidence about the relationship between poverty and inequality, on the one hand, and delinquency, on the other, has been elusive. After correcting the problem of endogeneity through instrumental variables and controlling for the socio-demographic and economic specificities of the municipalities, we find that there is a negative relationship between robbery and poverty, while a positive relationship prevails with inequality. Moreover, the interaction between the size of municipality and inequality makes the magnitude of the relationship vary with the size of the municipality. To the extent that the more prosperous municipalities are more prone to suffer robberies, ceteris paribus, it is inferred that the expected benefits of the robberies are greater than their expected costs. These results are robust to the different poverty indicators used, so they represent a solid starting point for making crime prevention decisions.