Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan. Sanandaj, Iran
2 PhD Student of Economics, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran
3 PhD Student of Economics, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Housing costs are one of the factors affecting on crime and income inequality. Increasing housing costs will reduce purchasing power and increase inequality, which will have heavy economic burden and psychological pressure on households and they may choose economic crimes to earn money to cover housing costs. In this study, the time period is from 2009 to 2020 and the quantile panel data regression model has been used to investigate the asymmetric effects of increasing housing costs on income inequality and crime rates in the provinces of Iran. The results show that increasing housing costs (increasing housing prices and rents) has increased income inequality and increased crime in the provinces of Iran. Other results of the study include a negative and significant effect of GDP per capita on income inequality and crime rates. According to the results, increasing migration rates has increased income inequality and increased crime; On the other hand, increasing employment rates have decreased income inequality and crime rates. Another important result of this study is the two-way causality between income inequality and crime rate.
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