White-collar crime is explained from an economist’s perspective. Economic models typically begin by assuming individuals behave rationally. By extension, economic models of crime suggest that white-collar criminals may be acting more rationally than a casual observer may assume. This thesis will identify the benefits and drawbacks of different regulations and laws by exploring several case studies of white-collar events.

The focus of this thesis is to examine the relationship between gambling and crime in the Czech environment, where gambling is broadly available. Data about the individual gambling machines and tables together with the data about offenses in particular police districts were used in order to estimate the effect of gambling on crime. The final dataset observes 388 geographical units over the life span between April 2013 and December 2015. The study employs three estimation techniques the OLS, Poisson regression and Negative binomial regression to estimate the effect of gambling on crime. The main variable representing the size of gambling is the number of slot machines as these are the most broadly available type of gambling. The final estimated relationship between crime and slot machines is that one additional slot machine is associated with an increase in crime by 0.3-0.5% depending on the method and frequency. On the contrary, the effect of casino games, electromechanical roulettes, and dice devices on crime was found to be statistically insignificant. In addition, the study also analyses particular types of crimes, finding that gambling has an impact particularly on crimes that involve material benefits as opposed to the violent crimes. Moreover, it also conducts a what-if analysis demonstrating the estimated impact of reduction of gambling on the substantial drop of the number of offenses over the observed period was rather limited and account for 937 offenses.

La présente thèse se propose d'étudier la formation de la demande pour les instruments de paiements. Dans un premier essai, nous montrons à l'aide d'un modèle théorique et d'une étude empirique sur données françaises que la tarification des retraits déplacés réduit la demande pour les espèces. Dans un deuxième essai, nous montrons, également à l'aide d'un modèle théorique et d'une étude sur données françaises, que les marchands ajustent leur prix pour rendre les paiements en espèce plus pratiques, au sens où ils mobilisent moins de pièces et billets. Les prix convénients à payer en espèces sont plus fréquent toutes choses égales par ailleurs, et ils sont plus fréquemment payés en espèces. Les troisième et quatrième essais étudient l'impact du crime comme facteur environnemental pour les marchands, plus spécifiquement sur le niveau d'appréciation des espèces et sur l'acceptation de la carte bancaire. Nous montrons que les marchands ont une préférence plus élevée pour les espèces et acceptent moins fréquemment les cartes bancaire de paiement dans un département où la criminalité financière est importante. Les consommateurs possèdent plus souvent une carte bancaire et retirent hebdomadairement des sommes plus élevées aux distributeurs automatiques de billets. Nous mettons en évidence les effets opposés pour un niveau élevé de criminalité violente, aussi bien pour les consommateurs que pour les marchands.% Les effets de la criminalité financière sont interprétés comme résultant de sélection adverse tandis que les effets de la criminalité violente sont interprétés comme des effets de précaution.Enfin, le sixième essai étudie l'influence du risque perçu sur la fréquence de détention et la fréquence d'utilisation des instruments de paiement. Nous appliquons le modèle de Jacoby et Kaplan (1972) au choix de l'instrument de paiement, et nous concluons à partir d'une étude empirique sur données françaises que le risque de manque et le risque de temps ont les effets les plus transversaux sur la demande pour les instruments de paiement. / The present dissertation studies the formation of the demand for the main retail payment instruments (cash, bank card and check). The first chapter presents both a theoretical and empirical analysis using French data. We conclude that charging cash withdrawals at ATMs outside the network of the bank reduces the global demand for cash. The second chapter concludes, with the help of a theoretical model and on the basis of French data, that a seller adjust prices in order to make the buyers pay cash by making cash payment more convenient, in the sense that they limit the number of coins and notes exchanged. All other things being equal, we show that convenient prices are more frequent and more frequently paid cash. The third and fourth chapters study the impact of crime as an environmental factor on the merchant side, more specifically on the preference for cash and card acceptance. We show that in an environment with a high level of financial criminality, merchants have a higher preference for cash and are less likely to accept bank cards. The fifth chapter studies the impact of crime as an environmental factor on the choice of payment instrument by consumers. They are more likely to own a payment card, and the weekly sums withdrawn at ATMs are higher. We find opposite effects for Violent Crime. Eventually, the sixth chapter studies the impact of perceived risk on the holding and and use of payment instruments. We apply the model of Jacoby and Kaplan (1972) to payment instruments, and we conclude on the basis of an empirical investigation that the risk of lack and the time risk have the most cross-cutting effects on the demand for each of the main retail payment instruments.

Este trabalho estuda o impacto de choques emocionais induzidos por resultados de jogos de futebol entre 2006 e 2016 no Brasil no comportamento violento dos indivíduos. Assume-se que o risco de violência pode ser modelado como função dos resultados das partidas. A hipótese chave é de que condicionando pelas probabilidades de vitória atribuídas aos times antes dos jogos, dadas pelos mercados de apostas, os resultados das partidas podem ser interpretados como aleatórios. Utiliza-se o fato de que torcidas de times de futebol do Brasil estão bem espalhadas ao longo dos municípios do país (e não apenas restritas ao estado de origem do time) para captar a proporção de pessoas atingidas por choques emocionais causados por partidas de futebol em determinado dia. O choque emocional é construído pela diferença entre a proporção de pessoas no município atingidas por choques positivos e a proporção atingida por choques negativos. Considera-se um choque o resultado da partida que foi muito diferente do previsto pelo mercado de apostas. O resultado encontrado indica que cada ponto percentual a mais no número de pessoas recebendo um choque negativo em determinado município eleva o número esperado de mortes por agressão em 0,08%. A análise extensiva do modelo indica que o efeito é mais intenso para óbitos masculinos, principalmente àqueles ocorridos na rua. O número de mortes femininas ocorridas em casa aumenta de forma significante diante de choques negativos. / This project studies the impact of emotional shocks induced by the results of brazilian soccer games in the period from 2006 from 2016 in the violent behavior of individuals. I assume the risk of violence being a function of the soccer games results. The key hypotesis is that conditional on the implied probabilities given by betting markets before the game, the actual results can be seen as random. I use the fact of soccer clubs distribution along the country being very spread, not only concentrated in the local state of the club (as happens in the NFL distribution of supporters) so I can mesure the proportion of people being affected by emotional shocks induced by soccer games in a given day. The emotional shock is given by the difference between the amount of individuals affected by positive shocks and the amount affected by negative shocks. I consider a schock when the result of the match differs from the predicted by the beting markets. The baseline result indicates that each 1 p.p. in the number of individuals receiving negative shocks in a given municipallity elevates the expected number of deaths caused by agressions in 0.08%. The model extension analysis indicates that the effect is more intensive for men death, mainly the ones occuring in the streets. The number of women deaths occuring at home elevates significantly when a negative shock occurs.

Identifying the complex channels through which civil war affects household decisions is important in the design of policies that eliminate or mitigate the consequences of armed conflict on household welfare. This is particularly relevant in conflict-affected countries looking to establish a transitory justice towards a post-conflict. In this dissertation, I analyze the micro-level impact of civil war and illicit activities on household welfare, using the case of Colombia and Burundi. For doing this, I develop five chapters where I provide an empirical investigation on three dimensions: (i) the impact of armed conflict on agricultural production; (ii) the role of institutions on the “war of drugs”; and, (iii) the determinants and socio-economics consequences of household migration during and after being exposed to civil war.The first part investigates the impact of armed conflict on the agricultural production, using the case of coffee growers in Colombia. After being many years out of conflict, coffee producer regions in Colombia were exposed to violence as a consequence of the intensification of conflict during nineties and the deteriorate of the world coffee market. In order to initially understand such relationship, in Chapter 1, co-authored with Ana María Ibañez and Philip Verwimp, we use unique census data sets from two different years (1997 and 2005) to estimate the relationship between coffee and violence. First, we explore how conflict generates disincentives to continue on agricultural production. Second, we examine the direct impact of conflict on agricultural production through different productive outcomes. We find a significant negative relationship between levels of violence and the decision to continue coffee production as well as the levels of productivity of the coffee production to coffee. Results are robust after controlling for sample selection bias and alternative specifications.After establishing observational evidence from the census analysis on the presumably negative impact of armed conflict on the agricultural production, I make a step further to establish a causal link in Chapter 2. I take advantage of a natural experiment in the levels of violence due to the unexpected rupture of the peace dialogues between Colombian Government and guerillas groups in 2002. Using data provided by National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, I estimate the Intention to Treat (ITT) effect using a difference-in-difference specification. Results suggest that an exogenous increase of the levels of violence induced a reduction of hectares allocated to coffee, on average, -0.06 hectares (ha). Moreover, an average farm, which is 2 ha of coffee, an exogenous increase of the levels of violence induced a reduction of the sowing new coffee until 3.5%. This paper contributes to the literature on the microeconomics costs of conflict in Agricultural Production, providing further information about mechanisms (labor market).In long civil conflicts, rebel groups may eventually be evolved in production of illicit crops to finance their activities, boosting the intensity and prevalence of armed confrontations. Despite the different multi-lateral drug policies, the production continues increasing. In the second part of the dissertation I study this fact using the case of coca crops in Colombia. In Chapter 3, co-authored with Santiago Tobon and Jesse D’Anjou, we analyze the role of formalization of land property rights in the war against illicit crops in Colombia. We exploit an exogenous variation in the level of formalization of land property rights, as result of the application of a national land-titling program during 1994-2000. We argue that, as a consequence of the increase of state presence and visibility during the period of 2000-2009, municipalities with a higher level of formalization of their land property rights saw a greater reduction in the area allocated to illicit crops. We found a significant negative relationship between the level of formalization of land property rights and the number of hectares allocated to coca crops per municipality. We hypothesize that this is due to the increased cost of growing illicit crops on formal land compared to informal, and due to the possibility of obtaining more benefits in the newly installed institutional environment when land is formalized. Empirical results validate these two mechanisms. The third and last part of this dissertation, studies the nutritional status of formerly displaced households after return and the determinants of household structure during civil war in Burundi. In chapter 4, co-authored with Philip Verwimp, we investigate the food security and nutritional status of formerly displaced households. Using the 2006 Core Welfare Indicator Survey for Burundi we compare their food intake and their level of expenses with that of their non-displaced neighbors. We test whether it is the duration of displacement that matters for current food security and nutritional status or the time lapsed since returning. We use log-linear as well as propensity score matching and an IV-approach to control for self-selection bias. We find that the individuals and households who returned home just before the time of the survey are worse off compared to those who returned several years earlier. On average, the formerly displaced have 5% lower food expenses and 6% lower calorie intake. Moreover, we found evidence in favor of duration of displacement as the main mechanisms through which displacement affect household welfare Results are robust after controlling by self-selection bias. Despite international, government and NGO assistance, the welfare of recent returnees is lagging seriously behind in comparison with the local non-displaced populations.The final chapter, co-authored with Richard Akresh and Philip Verwimp, analyzes whether civil war modifies household structure by boosting individual migration. The identification strategy uses a unique two waves longitudinal data set from Burundi, for 1997 and 2008. This data set was collected during ongoing conflict and allows tracking individual migration decision over ten years. Besides the traditional conflict exposure measures at village level, our data gathered yearly information on household victimization. Results show that higher exposure to violence increases the probability to individual non-marital migration. These effects are concentrated on poor households and those household members that are adults or men. Our results are consistent with aggregated measure of conflict exposure, as well as household level victimization measures. Furthermore, we found that whereas marital migration in adult un-married women is unrelated with exposure to violence at village level, it does with household victimization approaches. In particular, we found that being victim of any assets related losses is related to an increase of marital migration for middle age unmarried women. It could imply the use of marriage market as strategy to face liquidity constraints. Results are robust to including province–specific time trends, alternative conflict exposure measures, and different levels of aggregation. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2018-07-16T11:47:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 jessicadeoliveirafernandes.pdf: 1123892 bytes, checksum: 9652809e9b5db221e144e45f16405491 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-09-03T16:17:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 jessicadeoliveirafernandes.pdf: 1123892 bytes, checksum: 9652809e9b5db221e144e45f16405491 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-03T16:17:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 jessicadeoliveirafernandes.pdf: 1123892 bytes, checksum: 9652809e9b5db221e144e45f16405491 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-06-11 / A avaliação das Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPPs) no crime do Rio de Janeiro é um tema já discutido na literatura, no entanto, os autores tratam do tema não levam em consideração os deslocamentos espaciais de crime potencialmente existentes. Até o ano de 2014, as UPPs haviam sido implementadas em 38 comunidades circunscritas em 26 distritos policiais (DPs). Este trabalho tem o objetivo de avaliar o impacto das UPPs nas taxas de criminalidade entre 2007 e 2016. Para isso, foi realizada uma avaliação de tratamento por meio da abordagem das diferenças-em-diferenças espacial (SDID), método capaz de modelar o deslocamento espacial do crime das regiões tratadas para regiões vizinhas. Os resultados revelam que as UPPs reduziram as taxas de homicídios dolosos, furto a veículos e roubo de veículos nas regiões ocupadas. Além disso, houve um transbordamento dos benefícios da política pública para as regiões vizinhas. / The impact evaluation of Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPPs) in the Rio de Janeiro crime is a topic already discussed in the literature, however, the authors do not take into account the potentially existing spatial displacements of crime. Until the year of 2014, the UPPs have been implemented in 38 communities circumscribed in 26 police districts (DPs). This study is aimed at measuring the impact of the UPPs on crime rates between 2007 and 2016. To do so, a impact evaluation was performed by approaching the spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) which is able to treat crime spatial displacement of regions treated to neighboring regions. The findings reveal that the UPPs have reduced homicide rates, vehicle thefts and vehicles obberies at the occupied regions. Besides, there was a spatial spillover of the benefits of UPPs to the neighboring regions.