Urban-rural income gap and urban crime rate

• Published in: Finance research letters Vol. 63; p. 105285
• Main Authors: Wang, Meng, Li, Bingyao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.05.2024
• Subjects: Urban crime rate; Urban-rural income gap; Urban crime rate; Urban-rural income gap
• ISSN: 1544-6123; 1544-6131
• DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2024.105285

•The greater the urban-rural income gap, the more likely it is to lead to an increase in the urban crime rate.•This effect is more evident in areas with low levels of marketization.•This effect is more evident in areas with low levels of government special transfer payments. This article takes various prefecture-level cities in China as the research subject and empirically tests the relationship between the urban-rural income gap and the urban crime rate in Chinese urban areas. The research results show that the greater the urban-rural income gap, the more likely it is to lead to an increase in the urban crime rate. Further heterogeneity analysis results show that the impact of the urban-rural income gap on the urban crime rate is more evident in areas with low levels of marketization and low levels of government special transfer payments.