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Organised Crime, Corruption and Punishment

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Author Info
Kugler, Maurice
Verdier, Thierry
Zenou, Yves

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Abstract

We analyse an oligopoly model in which differentiated criminal organisations globally compete on criminal activities and engage in local corruption to avoid punishment. When law enforcers are sufficiently well-paid, difficult to bribe and corruption detection highly probable, we show that increasing policing, or sanctions, effectively deters crime. However, when bribing costs are low, that is badly-paid and dishonest law enforcers work in a weak governance environment, and the rents from criminal activity relative to legal activity are sufficiently high, we find that increasing policing and sanctions can generate higher crime rates. In particular, the relationship between the traditional instruments of deterrence, namely intensification of policing and sanctions, and the crime rate is nonmonotonic. Beyond a threshold, further increases in intended expected punishment create incentives for organised crime extending corruption rings, and ensuing impunity results in a fall of actual expected punishment that yields more rather than less crime. JEL Classification: K42, L13, O17. Keywords; Intended deterrence, organised crime, weak governance, corruption.

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Paper provided by Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton in its series Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics with number 0407.

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Date of creation: 01 May 2004
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Handle: RePEc:stn:sotoec:0407

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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. Fender, John, 1999. "A general equilibrium model of crime and punishment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 437-453, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell, 1999. "The Economic Theory of Public Enforcement of Law," NBER Working Papers 6993, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Marjit, Sugata & Shi, Heling, 1998. "On controlling crime with corrupt officials," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 163-172, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Kugler, M. & Rosenthal, H., 2000. "Checks and Balances: An Assessment of the Institutional Separation of Political Powers in Colombia," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0018, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
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  9. Polinsky, A. Mitchell & Shavell, Steven, 2001. "Corruption and optimal law enforcement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 1-24, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Arun S. Malik, 1990. "Avoidance, Screening and Optimum Enforcement," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(3), pages 341-353, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Chang, Juin-jen & Lai, Ching-chong & Yang, C. C., 2000. "Casual police corruption and the economics of crime:: Further results," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 35-51, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Basu, Kaushik & Bhattacharya, Sudipto & Mishra, Ajit, 1992. "Notes on bribery and the control of corruption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 349-359, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Mookherjee, Dilip & Png, I P L, 1992. "Monitoring vis-a-vis Investigation in Enforcement of Law," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 556-65, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Kugler, Maurice & Verdier, Thierry & Zenou, Yves, 2003. "Organized Crime, Corruption and Punishment," Working Paper Series 600, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Garoupa, Nuno, 2000. "The Economics of Organized Crime and Optimal Law Enforcement," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 278-88, April.
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  18. Besley, Timothy & McLaren, John, 1993. "Taxes and Bribery: The Role of Wage Incentives," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(416), pages 119-41, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Abdalla Mansour & Nicolas Marceau & Steeve Mongrain, 2001. "Gangs and Crime Deterrence," Cahiers de recherche CREFE / CREFE Working Papers 138, CREFE, Université du Québec à Montréal. [Downloadable!]
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  20. Polinsky, Mitchell & Shavell, Steven, 1979. "The Optimal Tradeoff between the Probability and Magnitude of Fines," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(5), pages 880-91, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Bowles, Roger & Garoupa, Nuno, 1997. "Casual police corruption and the economics of crime," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 75-87, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Sebastien Steinmetz & Yves Zenou, 2001. "On the Existence of Spatial Monopolies Under Free Entry," Economics Bulletin, Economics Bulletin, vol. 4, pages 1-10. [Downloadable!]
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(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. Ethan Bueno De Mesquita & Catherine Hafer, 2008. "Public Protection Or Private Extortion?," Economics and Politics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 20(1), pages 1-32, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Svetlana Andrianova & Nicolas Melissas, 2006. "Corruption, Extortion, and the Boundaries of the Law," Working Papers 0605, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Paolo Buonanno & Daniel Montolio & Paolo Vanin, 2006. "Does Social Capital Reduce Crime?," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0029, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno". [Downloadable!]
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  4. Pedro H. Albuquerque, 2005. "Shared Legacies, Disparate Outcomes: Why American South Border Cities Turned the Tables on Crime and Their Mexican Sisters Did Not," Law and Economics 0511002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  5. Hakkala, Katariina & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Svaleryd, Helena, 2005. "Asymmetric Effects of Corruption on FDI: Evidence from Swedish Multinational Firms," Working Paper Series 641, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 20 Aug 2007. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Pääkkönen, Jenni, 2009. "Optimal Law Enforcement and Welfare in the Presence of Organized Crime," BOFIT Discussion Papers 30/2008, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition. [Downloadable!]
  7. Kugler, Maurice & Verdier, Thierry & Zenou, Yves, 2004. "Organised Crime, Corruption and Punishment," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0407, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton. [Downloadable!]
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