Crime, Infrastructure and Urban Proximity : Game-Theoretic and Empirical Analyses

We contribute to the literature by developing a three-stage sequential game theoretical framework to examine the impact of local crime rates on financing commitments for infrastructure projects. We test the propositions of this framework using a panel dataset with 542 public private partnership (PPP) financed public amenities in England and Wales. We find that higher crime is associated with higher government underpayment for infrastructure projects. We also find that the closer an infrastructure project is located to urban centres, the higher the returns to crime relative to the costs faced by the criminals