DP3891 The Determinants of Employee Crime in the UK

Author(s): Neil Rickman , Robert Witt

Publication Date: May 2003

Keyword(s): employee crime , labour markets

JEL(s): J20 , K42

Programme Areas: Public Policy

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP3891.asp

For the first time, we present evidence on employee theft in the UK using data on actual recorded crime. We present a model where employees are ‘rational cheaters’ with ‘consciences’ to produce hypotheses about the role of labour market (wages, unemployment) and social (age, education) influences on employee theft. We then examine the role of these influences using regional crime data supplemented by data from the LFS. Our results provide information on two competing views of motivations for crime and on policy to combat employee crime.