The cost of protection racket in Sicily

Asmundo, Adam; Lisciandra, Maurizio

doi:10.1080/17440570802254338

Cited by 34 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Organised crime is a unique and specific problem 5 of those Southern regions, and its several negative effects on the regular economic activities have been recently studied. In fact, according to several authors (Asmundo and Lisciandra, 2008;Asso and Trigilia, 2011;Bonaccorsi di Patti, 2009), it creates direct and indirect costs for regular firms, such as extortion and constraints in recruiting workers and in applying for public tender contracts (for example, in the building sector). Moreover, by using their criminal power to protect their own 'legal' economic activities, criminal organisations discourage other firms from competing with them (and, therefore, their own firms can therefore operate as monopolies); and, by using illegal financial resources to lower their costs, 'legal' firms under their control can be unfairly competitive on the free market.…”

Section: The Explanatory Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The North-South Divide in Italy: Reality or Perception?

Musolino

2018

ESR&P

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Abstract Although the literature about the objective socio-economic characteristics of the Italian North- South divide is wide and exhaustive, the question of how it is perceived is much less investigated and studied. Moreover, the consistency between the reality and the perception of the North-South divide is completely unexplored. The paper presents and discusses some relevant analyses on this issue, using the findings of a research study on the stated locational preferences of entrepreneurs in Italy. Its ultimate aim, therefore, is to suggest a new approach to the analysis of the macro-regional development gaps. What emerges from these analyses is that the perception of the North-South divide is not consistent with its objective economic characteristics. One of these inconsistencies concerns the width of the ‘perception gap’, which is bigger than the ‘reality gap’. Another inconsistency concerns how entrepreneurs perceive in their mental maps regions and provinces in Northern and Southern Italy. The impression is that Italian entrepreneurs have a stereotyped, much too negative, image of Southern Italy, almost a ‘wall in the head’, as also can be observed in the German case (with respect to the East-West divide).

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Section: The Explanatory Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The North-South Divide in Italy: Reality or Perception?

Musolino

2018

ESR&P

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“…In fact, these rent‐extraction activities—specifically extortions—are the type of crimes that occur at a local level where there is territorial control by an organized crime group. According to Asmundo and Lisciandra (), the majority of the cases studied for their research involved the typical form of extortion consisting in a regular fee or payment demanded or imposed by the criminal organization to legal businesses through intimidation and threats of violence—that is, damage in property or in person. Some studies on the economic literature of crime (see e.g., Calderoni ; Lavezzi ; Lisciandra ) explain that, in order to extract such contributions, organized crime demands the payment of various fees, depending on the productive sectors’ profitability.…”

Section: Economic Overview Of Michoacánmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies on the economic literature of crime (see e.g., Calderoni ; Lavezzi ; Lisciandra ) explain that, in order to extract such contributions, organized crime demands the payment of various fees, depending on the productive sectors’ profitability. But one of the most relevant traits by which businesses in the legal productive sectors are selected by organized crime is because, according to Asmundo and Lisciandra (), they represent the most prosperous businesses in the region and because their revenues are easily monitored so the criminal organization can demand a suitable extortion sum. The modus operandi in the case of avocado producers differs from the one used by the KT in the case of lime producers, and it is also different from the one implemented in the case of iron production exports.…”

Section: Economic Overview Of Michoacánmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organized Crime in Michoacán: Rent‐Seeking Activities in the Avocado Export Market

Ornelas¹

2018

Politics & Policy

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The aim of this article is to contribute to the existing measurements on extortions by organized crime and assess the impact of this predatory activity on economic growth. Extortions should be evaluated beyond the number of reported crimes to understand how much money is drained away from the legal economy. To set the stage I first analyze the illegal activities carried out by organized crime groups in the Mexican state of Michoacán during 2001-14. Within this context this article presents a case study of extortions in the avocado legal export market. Specifically, this article shows how the criminal organization, the Knights Templar (KT), extracted rents from this legal market, what was the estimated magnitude of that rent, how tangential was this source of revenue to organized crime, and what was the adverse impact of these extortions of the KT on the economy of Michoacán by looking at the performance of the main macroeconomic variables.

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“…Furthermore, Rey cannot estimate the cost of brutal crime, such as murder and sex assault, because no transfer of money is involved. Asmundo and Lisciandra (2008) try to estimate the average and total social costs of protection racket in Sicily (Italy), using regional data. They consider the amounts paid for the criminal protection, what they call "costs as a consequence", but they leave out other significant expenditures, such as costs in anticipation and costs in response to crime.…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%