Unemployment and Crime

Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between unemployment and crime by examining the large variation in unemployment in Sweden between 2007 and 2017. In this paper, I use a panel data set that consist of 3190 observations over 290 municipalities. The variation in unemployment serves as a proxy for macroeconomic events. The results suggest at best a weak effect from unemployment on violent crime and no effect from unemployment on property crime which goes against the established crime theory.