Does Economic Freedom Really Kill? On the Association between ‘Neoliberal’ Reform and Homicide Rates

This paper investigates recent claims that ‘neoliberal' policies and reforms are associated with higher homicide rates and other types of crime. Using a panel of the 50 US states observed between 1981 and 2005 and the Economic Freedom Index of the Fraser Institute, results show that there is no direct association between changes in economic policies as measured by this index and homicide rates. The results nevertheless show that other types of crime decrease with liberalizing spending or tax reforms. Effects of liberalizing tax reforms in particular may spill over from less violent crime to lower homicide rates