TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hamermesh,Daniel S.
TI  - Crime and the Timing of Work
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6613
PY  - 1998
Y2  - June 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6613
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6613.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daniel S. Hamermesh
Department of Economics
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1173
Tel: 512/475-8526
Fax: 512/471-3510
E-Mail: hamermes@eco.utexas.edu
AB  - Two striking facts describe work timing in the United States: a lower propensity to work evenings and nights in large metropolitan areas, and a secular decline in such work since 1973.  One explanation is higher and possibly increasing crime in large areas.  I link Current Population Survey data on work timing to FBI crime reports.  Neither fact is explained by changes in nor inter-area differences in crime rates, but higher homicide rates do reduce such work.  This reduction implicitly costs the economy between $4 and $10 billion.  This negative externality illustrates a larger class of previously unmeasured costs of social pathologies.
ER  -