Oxford Economic Papers Advance Access originally published online on November 4, 2004
Oxford Economic Papers 2005 57(1):112-119; doi:10.1093/oep/gpi005
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Income variables and the measures of gains from crime

*School of Business, La Trobe University
Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia; e-mail: c.choe{at}agsm.edu.au
There is ambiguity in the empirical studies of crime economics regarding various income variables used to proxy the expected net gains from crime. As a result, the empirical findings are often mixed or contradictory to one another. This note provides a theoretical argument that relates the net expected gains from crime to a measure of income inequality (the Gini coefficient) and the mean income of a society, thereby clarifying the ambiguity.
Key Words: JEL classification: D63 K00