The Demand for Social Control Tools

Maintaining social stability is one of the major public goods provided by the government and is essential for the smooth operation of an economy. This research reveals the interactions of and factors affecting the demand for three important social control tools, namely, police, relief for the poor and primary education. A simultaneous model of five equations are estimated by Two-stage Least Squares and Three-stage Least Squares methods. We find that relief-for-the-poor factor behaves very similarly to the police factor. Primary education is complementary to the other two social control tools, while police and poor relief are substitutes for maintaining social stability. This interrelationship between social control tools implies that in dealing with social problems, decision-makers should contemplate an optimal combination of various social control tools instead of functioning in an ad hoc or piece-meal fashion. Moreover, knowing the factors affecting the demand for the social control tools is useful for policy making in the public sector.