Socioeconomic Determinants of Economic Crimes in Turkey: Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

Individuals or criminal organizations carry out various criminal activities in all countries of the world with illegal methods to gain unfair economic benefits. With theft, bribery, and fraud being in the lead, many types of economic crimes disrupt the economic and social order of the society, damage mutual trust between individuals, and feed the informal economy. This study aims to determine the relationship between economic crimes and socioeconomic factors. Within the scope of the study, panel data of 26 sub-regions in the Statistical Regional Units Classification-II (İİBS-II) of Turkey for the period of 2008-2019 were analyzed with dynamic panel data methods and the socioeconomic determinants of 10 different crimes representing economic crimes in the literature were put forward. Based on the results of the study, it is observed that the gross national product per capita, unemployment, educational status, population density, and net migration, which are among the socioeconomic factors included in the analysis, have statistically significant effects on the economic crime rates.

Türkiye’de Ekonomik Suçların Dinamikleri ve Belirleyicileri

“…In fraud crimes, e.g., forgery, bribery, and smuggling, the findings indicate that the opportunity cost of committing a crime for the unemployed in Türkiye is lower than for workers. The positive sign of income is also consistent with Yıldız et al (2022).…”

“…In the last years, three studies (Gültekin & Oğuzhan, 2021;Odabaşı, 2021;Yıldız et al, 2022) report similar findings about the effects of unemployment. They provide evidence that unemployment leads to lower economic crime rates by using static and dynamic panel estimators, respectively.…”

“…Besides this, they (except Odabaşı, 2021) find that higher income increases property crimes. Also, Yıldız et al (2022) report a positive and significant coefficient for secondary education and emphasize that education policies may not an efficient way to fight crime. Moreover, Cinar & Tas (2022) stress that an increase of 1000 people in unemployment increases property crime nearly 3 times compared to crimes against life.…”