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Can Enforcement Backfire? Crime Displacement in the Context of Customs Reform in the Philippines

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Author Info
Dean Yang (Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, University of Michigan; Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD); and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER))

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Abstract

Increased enforcement can displace crime to alternative lawbreaking methods. This paper examines a customs reform in the Philippines that raised enforcement against a specific method of avoiding import duties. Increased enforcement applied only to shipments from some countries, so shipments from other countries serve as a control group. Increased enforcement reduced the targeted duty-avoidance method, but caused substantial displacement to an alternative method. The hypothesis of zero change in total duty avoidance cannot be rejected. Displacement was greater for products with higher tariff rates and import volumes, consistent with the existence of fixed costs of switching to alternative duty-avoidance methods. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Review of Economics and Statistics.

Volume (Year): 90 (2008)
Issue (Month): 1 (November)
Pages: 1-14
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:90:y:2008:i:1:p:1-14

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Dean Yang, 2005. "Integrity for Hire: An Analysis of a Widespread Program for Combating Customs Corruption," Working Papers 525, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan. [Downloadable!]
  2. repec:bep:eapcon:v:5:y:2006:i:1:p:1600-1600 is not listed on IDEAS
  3. Kaufmann, Daniel & Bellver, Ana, 2005. "Transparenting Transparency: Intial Empirics and Policy Applications," MPRA Paper 8188, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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