The Relationship between Economic Growth and Crime: Evidence from Iran

Security and crime and their influencing factors are one of the most interesting topics for policymakers and macroeconomic planners. The existence of insecurity in different areas causes the adverse effects such as reducing of new investments and consequently, lack of motion in the country’s development path. Given the importance of this issue, this study attempts to examine the impact of economic growth on crime rates (here, theft has been considered as a proxy for crime) in Iran's provinces over the period of 1379 to1388. Economic growth has been evaluated as real per-capita GDP in regions (provinces). However, the nine ordinary robberies have been introduced as a manifestation of the crime. It is also integrated with TOPSIS method. Using a panel data regression, we analyze the impact of economic growth on crime (with mentioned interpretations) in the different regions of the country. The results show a significantly negative impact of economic growth on the crime. Based on these results and in terms of policy, it is necessary to consider the issue of economic growth in all regions of the country (particularly balanced economic growth) in order to reduce the amount of crime (theft) for the future security.