Essays in economics of crime prevention and behavior under uncertainty

Abstract

This dissertation contains three chapters on topics in experimental economics and the economics of crime. The first chapter studies gender and sex differences in uncertainty attitudes by following a broader and more inclusive concept of gender instead of the conventional binary approach. The second chapter investigates the extent to which the behavior of individuals is interrelated in terms of crime prevention. Specifically, it studies whether social contagion could explain why some visible crime prevention measures are highly popular in some areas but rarely used in others. The third chapter demonstrates the crime-reducing effect of private crime preventive measures. It studies the role of the "potential" victims and how their actions can deter crime