Title: Estimating the social costs of firearms: application to the Portuguese case

Authors: Joana Matos Dias; Pedro Godinho

Addresses: Faculdade de Economia and Inesc-Coimbra, Universidade de Coimbra, Av. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal. ' Faculdade de Economia and GEMF, Universidade de Coimbra, Av. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract: In this paper, we present a methodology for estimating social costs associated with firearm incidents and present some results regarding the application of the methodology to Portugal. We consider social costs associated with such incidents, including medical care costs, losses in productivity and also intangible costs, like the valuation of the loss of quality of life, measured by safety per se values. We conclude that the intangible costs constitute the main slice of the total costs, in accordance with what has been reported by other authors for other countries, but the annual average cost per inhabitant is low when compared with other countries' realities.

Keywords: social costs; cost of crime; evaluation methods; firearm incidents; Portugual; gun crime; guns; medical care costs; productivity losses; intangible costs; quality of life; healthcare costs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2013.050640

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2013 Vol.5 No.1, pp.17 - 32

Published online: 30 Dec 2013 *

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