A second difficulty with previous studies is the confusion about the variable t o be explained. Some concentrate on rates, others on earnings, and there is little discussion of which should be used or whether the same set of explanatory variables should be employed irrespective of the * The research underlying this paper waa financed by the SSRC Inflation Project at the University of Manchester. We are indebted to David Laidler and David Purdy for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

This papers considers the postulated link between crime and unemployment. It outlines the main theoretical premises for such a relationship and critically summarises the empirical work to date before introducing the specific approach used in the analysis reported here. This is essentially a cross section econometric analysis of crime rates which concludes that unemployment per se has no direct influence on the level of crime. There is evidence that previous studies which reported such a connection were erroneous and that these errors resulted from a confusion between unemployment and the more general concept of economic welfare. Further analysis reveals that there is no evidence that crime is higher among ethnic minorities or in non-rural communities, nor unfortunately that increased policing actually reduces crime.

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Economic Theory and Hicksian Themes. D.A.Collard, D.R.Helm, M.F.G.Scott and A.K.Sen (eds), Oxford University Press, 1984 (170 pp).

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