Poverty and crime in 19th century Germany: A reassessment

Arbeitspapier

Using panel data for Prussia during 1882 to 1910, we replicate Mehlum, Miguel, and Torvik's (2006) study on the causal effect of poverty on crime in 19th century Germany. In addition, our data set allows us to make several original contributions to the literature. We confirm the robust positive effect of poverty on property crime. Employing the rye price as a proxy for poverty, we show that the effect is less pronounced for provinces with a large agricultural sector. As Mehlum et al., we also find a strong negative impact of poverty on violent crime. However, once we account for beer consumption, this effect vanishes.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods ; No. 2010,35

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law ; Regional and Urban History: Europe: Pre-1913
• Subject: crime ; poverty ; rye price ; beer ; weather ; Prussia ; Armut ; Kriminalität ; Alkoholkonsum ; Gewalt ; Sozialgeschichte ; Schätzung ; Preußen

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Traxler, Christian ; Burhop, Carsten
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/57471
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET