Spatial Externalities of Income Inequality on Security in Latin America

Pablo Ponce,José Álvarez-García,María de la Cruz del Río-Rama,Mary Cumbicus

doi:10.3390/math9030245

Pablo Ponce, José Álvarez-García + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/math9030245

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Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyse the effect of income inequality on the homicide rate. The study is carried out in 18 Latin American countries for the period 2005–2018. The methodology used is the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) model and the data were obtained from World Development Indicators, the World Health Organization and the Inter-American Development Bank. Thus, the dependent variable is the homicide rate and the independent variable is income inequality. In addition, some control variables are included, such as: poverty, urban population rate, unemployment, schooling rate, spending on security and GDP per capita, which improve the consistency of the model. The results obtained through GLS model determine that inequality has a negative and significant effect on the homicide rate for high-income countries (HIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC), whereas it is positive and significant for upper-middle-income countries (UMIC). On the other hand, the control variables show different results by group of countries. In the case of unemployment, it is not significant in any group of countries. Negative spatial dependence was found regarding spatial models such as: the spatial lag (SAR) and spatial error (SEM) method. In the spatial Durbin model (SDM), positive spatial dependence between the variables was corroborated. However, spatial auto-regressive moving average (SARMA) identified no spatial dependence. Under these results it is proposed: to improve productivity, education and improve the efficiency of security-oriented resources.

Highlights

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines homicide as the intentional death that one person causes on another and considers that homicides are the clearest reflection of the existing violence in a specific sector, country or region
It is observed that income inequality has a negative and statistically significant relationship with the homicide rate in Latin American countries at a global level, as well as in groups of countries classified by their income level high-income countries (HIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC)
These results are related to those obtained by Crespo [28], who found a negative relationship between inequality and the homicide rate in a study for Venezuela

Summary

Introduction

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines homicide as the intentional death that one person causes on another and considers that homicides are the clearest reflection of the existing violence in a specific sector, country or region. According to the UNODC [1], in 2017, around 464,000 people were homicide victims in the world; 80% of the victims were men, and 20% were women, of which the vast majority were victims of their partner, ex-partner or male relatives. In Latin America, the region with the highest number of homicides in the world, according to the UNODC [1], in 2017 the average homicide rate was 21.5% per 100,000 inhabitants. About 90.5% of homicide victims are men and 9.5% are women, and 50% of victims are between 15 and 30 years old, that is, the victims come from the group with the highest labour productivity.

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