Copper Theft in the United States: 2006-2013

Abstract

Using monthly data for three proxies of copper theft, this article uses multivariate regression models to examine the relationship between copper prices and copper theft in the United States from 2006 through mid-2013. The findings indicate that copper thefts, as proxied by insurance claims for copper theft, newspaper articles in LexisNexis mentioning copper theft, and Google searches, are positively related to copper prices with the former two reflecting a constant elasticity not statistically different from unity. There is some evidence that copper thefts are related to the general pattern of property crime but there is no evidence that copper thefts are related to unemployment or foreclosures.