Socio-Economic Development and Violence: An Empirical Application for Seven Metropolitan Areas in Colombia

Abstract

This work uses several empirical approaches to examine the effects of poverty and inequality on violence in the seven metropolitan areas in Colombia. To this end, this study describes the main determinants of violence in these cities; these determinants are all fundamental features of social instability. For this description, this paper uses several econometric approximations to compare and determine an adequate estimator for the analysis of Colombian urban violence. This hypothesis was supported by evidence showing that factors related to poverty, inequality, and education directly influenced violence in the cities. Because of their effects over time and their incidence rates across society, these factors also had negative effects on the economic and social development of every city analysed.

Violence and Economic Development in Colombian Cities: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

“…So far, the results of this study should demonstrate that factors such as inequality, poverty and education directly influence urban violence. Hence, higher economic development leads to lower crime rate, which concurs with various studies from different research approaches, for example, Cotte (), Cotte Poveda (, ), Darby et al . (), and Ades and Chua () studied the empirical correlations and theoretical linkages between political instability and economic growth, demonstrating the negative and significant relationship between these variables and Soares () analysed the determinants of heterogeneity in crime rates across countries, finding that reductions in inequality and increases in growth and education are associated with reductions in crime rates.…”

“…For example, Gaviria and Velez () evaluated the distribution of crime and violence across victims using probit models; Bourguignon et al . () analysed the effects of income distribution on crime with a panel of data of fixed effects; and Cotte Poveda (, ) studied the effects of economic development, inequality and poverty on urban violence using several panel data models. These studies have demonstrated that several socio‐economic factors have effects on crime and violence in Colombian cities.…”

Determinants of Mobility of Students in Europe

“…In particular, we can use youth unemployment as instrument. In fact, recent works clearly confirm that youth unemployment is significantly associated with crime (see Beraldo, Caruso, & Turati, 2013; Caruso, 2011; Cotte Poveda, 2011; Falk, Kuhn, & Zweimueller, 2011; Fougère et al, 2009).…”

Conventional and Islamic Equity Market Reaction Towards Terrorism: Evidence Based on Target Types, Location and Islamic Calendar Months

“…It indicates that people are becoming more aware about the importance of education(Andrabi et al, 2009), therefore, might become more sensitive towards the attacks on educational institutes. Previous studies states that unemployment, poverty and education are linked with the terrorism(Sayre, 2009;Poveda, 2011). Furthermore, the growth in formal education in Pakistan has increased since the 9/11(Andrabi et al, 2009) which also implies that increased inclination towards formal education increased the awareness among people and they became more sensitive towards attacks on educational institutes.…”