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Dynamic panel and spatial analysis reveals digital public infrastructure expansion increases recorded economic crimes across Indian states, indicating improved detection and traceability.
This study examines the impact of digital public infrastructure (DPI) on economic crime rate (ECR) across Indian states during 2015–2023. A composite DPI index is constructed, and dynamic panel estimation is employed using the Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond estimator. Spatial dependence of ECR is analyzed through Spatial Durbin model (SDM). The results show that a 1% increase in DPI causes 0.13% rise in recorded ECR reflecting combined effect of enhanced detection, reporting, and traceability within DPI-enabled systems. ECR increases with state gross domestic product and declines with increase of police strength, while poverty and inflation are statistically insignificant. The SDM results confirm the spatial dependence of ECR. Thus, DPI expansion policy should be complemented by investments in digital security and law-enforcement capacity economy-wide.
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Sharma et al. (2026) studied this question.
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