Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP3891
Authors: Neil Rickman; Robert Witt
Abstract: For the first time, we present evidence on employee theft in the UK using data on actual recorded crime. We present a model where employees are ?rational cheaters? with ?consciences? to produce hypotheses about the role of labour market (wages, unemployment) and social (age, education) influences on employee theft. We then examine the role of these influences using regional crime data supplemented by data from the LFS. Our results provide information on two competing views of motivations for crime and on policy to combat employee crime.
Keywords: employee crime; labour markets
JEL Codes: J20; K42
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| lower wages (J31) | increase in employee theft (K42) |
| higher prospects of outside employment (J68) | increase in employee theft (K42) |
| higher propensity to commit crime (K42) | increase in employee theft (K42) |
| increase in average age (J11) | decrease in employee crime (K42) |
| higher wages (J39) | decrease in employee crime (K42) |
| higher share of population with no educational qualifications (I24) | increase in crime rates (K42) |