Life Satisfaction and Individual Willingness to Pay for Crime Reduction

Abstract

Manning M., Fleming C. M. and Ambrey C. L. Life satisfaction and individual willingness to pay for crime reduction, Regional Studies. This paper uses the life satisfaction approach to estimate the intangible cost of crime in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Results show that: (1) property crime is negatively associated with life satisfaction; (2) the implicit willingness to pay to decrease property crime by one offence per 1000 residents in the local government area (LGA) in the previous 12 months is A$82 per household (A$32 per person); and (3) the difference in implicit willingness-to-pay estimates when using restricted windfall income compared with household income is considerable. These results are robust to a significant number of controls.

Manning M., Fleming C. M. and Ambrey C. L. 生活满意度与减少犯罪的个人愿意支付金额，区域研究。本文运用生活满意度方法，评估澳大利亚新南威尔斯州中，犯罪的无形成本。研究结果显示：（1）财产犯罪与生活满意度呈现负相关；（2）过去十二个月以来，在地方政府辖区中（LGA），愿意支付降低每一千名居民一次的财产犯罪的潜在金额是每户八十二元澳币（每人 32 元澳币）；以及（3）与家户所得相较之下，当使用有限的意外所得时，潜在的愿意支付金额估计会有显着的差异。这些研究结果对诸多控制项而言是强健的。

Manning M., Fleming C. M. et Ambrey C. L. La satisfaction à l’égard de la vie et la volonté des particuliers de payer la réduction de la criminalité, Regional Studies. Ce présent article emploie une approches fondée sur la satisfaction à l’égard de la vie afin d'estimer les coûts indirects de la criminalité dans l’état de la Nouvelle-Galles du Sud, en Australie. Les résultats montrent que: (1) la crime contre la propriété est en corrélation négative avec la satisfaction à l’égard de la vie; (2) la volonté implicite de payer la réduction des crimes contre la propriété d'une infraction par 1.000 de la population dans la circonscription d'action gouvernementale locale au cours des derniers 12 mois se chiffre à A$82 par ménage (à savoir, A$32 par personne); et (3) à partir du revenu exceptionnel restreint au lieu du revenu ménager, la différence des estimations de la volonté implicite de payer s'avère non-négligeable. Ces résultats sont robustes pour ce qui est d'un bon nombre de contrôles.

Manning M., Fleming C. M. und Ambrey C. L. Lebenszufriedenheit und individuelle Zahlungsbereitschaft zur Senkung der Kriminalität, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag werden mithilfe des Ansatzes der Lebenszufriedenheit die intangiblen Kosten der Kriminalität im australischen Bundesstaat New South Wales geschätzt. Aus den Ergebnissen geht Folgendes hervor: (1) Eigentumskriminalität steht in einem negativen Zusammenhang mit der Lebenszufriedenheit, (2) die implizite Zahlungsbereitschaft zur Senkung der Eigentumskriminalität im kommunalen Verwaltungsbezirk um eine Straftat pro 1000 Einwohner während der letzten 12 Monate liegt bei 82 AUD pro Haushalt (32 AUD pro Person) und (3) die Berücksichtigung des eingeschränkten Zufallseinkommens im Vergleich zum Haushaltseinkommen führt zu einem beträchtlichen Unterschied hinsichtlich der Schätzungen der impliziten Zahlungsbereitschaft. Diese Ergebnisse bleiben auch bei einer signifikanten Anzahl von Kontrollen robust.

Manning M., Fleming C. M. y Ambrey C. L. Satisfacción con la vida y la voluntad individual de pagar para reducir la delincuencia, Regional Studies. Mediante un enfoque sobre la satisfacción con la vida, en este artículo calculamos el coste intangible de la delincuencia en el Estado de Nueva Gales del Sur, Australia. Los resultados indican que: (1) los delitos contra la propiedad están relacionados negativamente con la satisfacción con la vida; (2) la disposición implícita a pagar para reducir los delitos contra la propiedad por una infracción por cada 1000 residentes en un área de gobierno local en los últimos 12 meses es de 82 AUD por cada hogar (32 AUD por persona); y (3) es considerable la diferencia en las estimaciones de la disposición implícita a pagar cuando se utilizan ingresos extraordinarios limitados en comparación con los ingresos familiares. Estos resultados siguen siendo sólidos para un número significativo de controles.

• Costs of crime
• Property crime
• Life satisfaction approach
• Non-market valuation

• 犯罪代价
• 财产犯罪
• 生活满意度方法
• 非市场评估

• Coûts de la criminalité
• Crime contre la propriété
• Approche fondée sur la satisfaction à l’égard de la vie
• Évaluation du non-marchand

• Kosten von Kriminalität
• Eigentumskriminalität
• Lebenszufriedenheitsansatz
• Nicht marktbezogene Bewertung

• Costes de la delincuencia
• Delitos contra la propiedad
• Enfoque sobre la satisfacción con la vida
• Valoración no comercial

JEL classifications:

• C23
• D60
• D61
• I31

Acknowledgements

This research would not have been possible without data provided by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. In particular, the authors thank Dr Don Weatherburn for his assistance and guidance. They also thank the three anonymous referees for helpful feedback on earlier drafts of the paper. All errors and omissions remain the authors’ own. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the DSS and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors alone and should not be attributed to either the DSS or the Melbourne Institute.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2015.1082030

Notes

1. In terms of model estimation, property crime offences have the advantage of being accurately represented in reported crime data. This is because there are few impediments to reporting the crime and in many cases the crime must be reported in order to claim insurance. Reported data for other categories of crime, such as drug-related crime, tend to reflect enforcement effort rather than levels of offending.

2. A local government area (LGA) is a geographical area under the responsibility of an incorporated local government council, or an incorporated indigenous government council (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011).

3. In the economics literature, the terms ‘happiness’, ‘life satisfaction’, ‘subjective wellbeing’ and ‘utility’ tend to be used synonymously.

4. Unless otherwise stated, all figures are in Australian dollars. At the time of writing (12 March 2015), A$1 = £0.51, €0.72 and US$0.76.

5. The concordance file is CA2001LGA_2006LGA.TXT, which is available from the ABS upon request. The spatial weighting is based on geography and involves weighting the crime data by the proportion of the total area of the 2001 LGA occupied by the 2006 LGA. This process assumes that offences are evenly spread throughout the LGA.

6. See the Appendix in the supplemental data online for a worked example of willingness-to-pay calculations.

7. For an LGA at the mean (59.7 offences per 1000 individuals), this is equivalent to decreasing the rate of property crime by approximately nine offences per 1000 individuals per annum.