La dissuasion des homicides volontaires. Une analyse économétrique sur données de panel françaises

Ehrlich?s seminal work led to several econometric analyses on the deterrent effect of punishment. Our paper extends this literature by using original cross-section time-series covering the 30 French appeal court areas from 1988 to 1993. Because of a restricted access to the crime data, we focus our attention on murders. Estimation results validate the hypothesis of the deterrent effect of both the risk of imprisonment and the length of prison sentences. Classification JEL : K14 ; K42.