Crime and Residential Choice: A Neighborhood Level Analysis of the Impact of Crime on Housing Prices

Crime serves as an important catalyst for change in the socio-economic composition of communities. While such change occurs over a long period of time, crime is capitalized into local housing markets quickly and thus provides an early indicator of neighborhood transition. Using hedonic regression, we quantify this “intangible cost” of crime and extend the crime-housing price literature in several important ways. First, we disaggregate crime to the census tract level. Second, using longitudinal data, we examine changes in crime in addition to the neighborhood levels of crime. Third, we differentiate between the effects of property crime and violent crime. Fourth, we also disaggregate our sample into groups based on per capita income of the census tract. Finally, we show that it is vital to account for the measurement error that is endemic in reported crime statistics. We address this with an instrumental variable approach. Our results indicate that the average impacts of crime rates on house prices are misleading. We find that crime is capitalized at different rates for poor, middle class and wealthy neighborhoods and that violent crime imparts the greatest cost.

腐败何以不为“罪”——对中国传统社会官员贪贿横行的法文化解释

中国传统社会官员腐败横行,重要原因为“做官发财”行为在当时真正发生作用的社会集体意识中并不是一种不可接触的“罪”。传统社会对官员的腐败,正式话语与实践存在着背离。传统道德和国家的行为规范均要求官员应廉洁,历代都制定了相应的法规以惩罚违规的官员;但实践中大多数时候以皇帝为代表的封建国家都对官员的腐败行为表现出相当的宽容。官员表面上都愿意标榜自己是清官,但实践中大都选择成为贪官。普通百姓呼唤清官,痛恨贪官,但又用实际行动支持和默许自己做了官的子孙成为贪官。传统国家“道德立国”统治方略的弊端,官员为适应该逻辑形成的两面人格,以及整个社会的价值观是形成以上背离的基本背景。     

八国集团对国际法律秩序的作用和影响——基于权力与制度关系的分析框架

八国集团对国际法律秩序的作用和影响,无远弗届。八国集团的形成,标志着国际权力结构的新安排,也意味着依国际法协调新的国际权力关系的重要性;八国集团成员的国际身份,分力于政府间国际组织的活动、决策及制度建立过程,影响并决定着国际组织的内外法律秩序;八国峰会的议题,在很大程度上已成为确立新的国际法律规范的基础;而八国集团向正式国际组织发展的趋势,更使现有的国际法律秩序面临诸多严峻挑战。