IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/baf/cbafwp/cbafwp1893.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Detecting the Fifty Shades of Grey: Local Crime, Suspicious Transaction Reporting and Anti-Money Laundering Regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Lucia Dalla Pellegrina
  • Giorgio Di Maio
  • Donato Masciandaro
  • Marherita Saraceno

Abstract

This paper investigates the efficiency of the suspicious transaction reporting (STR) activity to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as a means to deter money laundering. A baseline theoretical model is used as a framework to guide the empirical analysis of the relationship between STR and the vulnerability of Italian provinces to money laundering in the 2008-2013 period. Instrumental variables are used to limit the problems stemming from the endogenous nature of the number of reports to the FIU with respect to vulnerability. Results provide a positive assessment of the riskbased mechanism of reporting suspicious operations to the FIU.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Giorgio Di Maio & Donato Masciandaro & Marherita Saraceno, 2018. "Detecting the Fifty Shades of Grey: Local Crime, Suspicious Transaction Reporting and Anti-Money Laundering Regulation," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1893, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp1893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.unibocconi.it/baffic/baf/papers/cbafwp1893.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carr-Hill, R. A. & Stern, N. H., 1973. "An econometric model of the supply and control of recorded offences in England and Wales," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 289-318.
    2. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina, 2008. "Illegal finance, interest rates and bank lending: the missing supply side of usury," Global Business and Economics Review, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(3), pages 265-283.
    3. Lambsdorff, Johann Graf, 2002. "Corruption and Rent-Seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 113(1-2), pages 97-125, October.
    4. Nicola Daniele Coniglio & Giuseppe Celi & Cosimo Scagliusi, 2010. "Organized Crime, Migration and Human Capital Formation: Evidence from the South of Italy," SERIES 0028, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Mar 2010.
    5. Petter Gottschalk, 2014. "White-Collar Criminals and Crime," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Financial Crime and Knowledge Workers, chapter 1, pages 7-39, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Eide, Erling & Rubin, Paul H. & Shepherd, Joanna M., 2006. "Economics of Crime," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 2(3), pages 205-279, December.
    7. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Petter Gottschalk, 2014. "White-Collar Crime Defense Lawyers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Financial Crime and Knowledge Workers, chapter 2, pages 41-54, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. Morgan Kelly, 2000. "Inequality And Crime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(4), pages 530-539, November.
    10. Mathur, Vijay K, 1978. "Economics of Crime: An Investigation of the Deterrent Hypothesis for Urban Areas," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(3), pages 459-466, August.
    11. Simon, Herbert A, 1978. "Rationality as Process and as Product of Thought," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 1-16, May.
    12. Ferwerda Joras, 2009. "The Economics of Crime and Money Laundering: Does Anti-Money Laundering Policy Reduce Crime?," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 903-929, December.
    13. Paolo Pinotti, 2012. "The Economic Costs of Organized Crime: Evidence from Southern Italy," Working Papers 054, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    14. Saffer, Henry & Chaloupka, Frank, 1999. "The Demand for Illicit Drugs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 401-411, July.
    15. Paolo Pinotti, 2015. "The Causes and Consequences of Organised Crime: Preliminary Evidence Across Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(586), pages 158-174, August.
    16. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    17. Cherry, Todd L. & List, John A., 2002. "Aggregation bias in the economic model of crime," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 81-86, March.
    18. Brigitte Unger, 2007. "The Scale and Impacts of Money Laundering," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12690.
    19. Daniele, Vittorio & Marani, Ugo, 2011. "Organized crime, the quality of local institutions and FDI in Italy: A panel data analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 132-142, March.
    20. Donato Masciandaro, 1999. "Money Laundering: the Economics of Regulation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 225-240, May.
    21. Petter Gottschalk, 2014. "Lawyers as Knowledge Workers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Financial Crime and Knowledge Workers, chapter 4, pages 77-92, Palgrave Macmillan.
    22. Fiorentini,Gianluca & Peltzman,Sam (ed.), 1997. "The Economics of Organised Crime," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521629553, October.
    23. McCarthy, Killian J. & van Santen, Peter & Fiedler, Ingo, 2015. "Modeling the money launderer: Microtheoretical arguments on anti-money laundering policy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 148-155.
    24. Adam Asmundo, 2008. "The cost of protection racket in Sicily," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 221-240, August.
    25. Benson, B.L. & Kim, I. & Rasmussen, D.W., 1992. "Estimating Deterrence Effects: A Public Choice Perspective on the Economics of Crime Literature," Working Papers 1992_12_01, Department of Economics, Florida State University.
    26. Dalla Pellegrina Lucia & Masciandaro Donato, 2009. "The Risk-Based Approach in the New European Anti-Money Laundering Legislation: A Law and Economics View," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 931-952, December.
    27. Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), 2010. "Handbook on the Economics of Crime," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13180.
    28. Cornwell, Christopher & Trumbull, William N, 1994. "Estimating the Economic Model of Crime with Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 360-366, May.
    29. Petter Gottschalk, 2014. "Financial Crime and Knowledge Workers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-38716-5, December.
    30. Marselli, Riccardo & Vannini, Marco, 1997. "Estimating a crime equation in the presence of organized crime: Evidence from Italy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 89-113, March.
    31. Donato Masciandaro, 2001. "In Offense of Usury Laws: Microfoundations of Illegal Credit Contracts," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 193-215, November.
    32. Petter Gottschalk, 2014. "Empirical Study of White-Collar Lawyers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Financial Crime and Knowledge Workers, chapter 8, pages 135-172, Palgrave Macmillan.
    33. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1973. "Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 521-565, May-June.
    34. Walker John & Unger Brigitte, 2009. "Measuring Global Money Laundering: "The Walker Gravity Model"," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 821-853, December.
    35. Davis, Michael L, 1988. "Time and Punishment: An Intertemporal Model of Crime," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 383-390, April.
    36. Cifarelli, Michele D. & Masciandaro, Donato & Peccati, Lorenzo & Salsa, Sandro & Tagliani, Aldo, 2002. "Success or failure of a firm under different financing policies: A dynamic stochastic model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(3), pages 471-482, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Giorgio Di Maio & Donato Masciandaro & Margherita Saraceno, 2020. "Are Bankers "Crying Wolf"? The Risk-Based Approach to Money-Laundering Regulation and its Effects," Working Papers 444, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2021.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro & Friedrich Schneider, 2022. "Corruption and money laundering: You scratch my back, i’ll scratch yours," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 318-342, February.
    2. Lauridsen, Jørgen T. & Zeren, Fatma & Ari, Ay?E, 2015. "Is Crime in Turkey Economically Rational?/¿Es económicamente racional el crimen en Turquía?," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 33, pages 37-52, Enero.
    3. Hope Corman & H. Naci Mocan, 1996. "A Time-Series Analysis of Crime and Drug Use in New York City," NBER Working Papers 5463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Philip A. Curry & Anindya Sen & George Orlov, 2016. "Crime, apprehension and clearance rates: Panel data evidence from Canadian provinces," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(2), pages 481-514, May.
    5. Deiana, C, 2016. "Local Labour Market Effects of Unemployment on Crime Induced by Trade Shocks," Economics Discussion Papers 16529, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    6. Maurice J. G. Bun & Richard Kelaher & Vasilis Sarafidis & Don Weatherburn, 2020. "Crime, deterrence and punishment revisited," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 2303-2333, November.
    7. Jorgen Lauridsen, 2009. "Is Baltic Crime Economically Rational?," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 31-38, July.
    8. Leighton Vaughan Williams & Chunping Liu & Hannah Gerrard, 2019. "How well do Elo-based ratings predict professional tennis matches?," NBS Discussion Papers in Economics 2019/03, Economics, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.
    9. Eide, Erling & Rubin, Paul H. & Shepherd, Joanna M., 2006. "Economics of Crime," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 2(3), pages 205-279, December.
    10. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro, 2019. "Cryptocurrency or usury? Crime and alternative money laundering techniques," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 233-254, April.
    11. Beraldo, Sergio & Caruso, Raul & Turati, Gilberto, 2013. "Life is now! Time preferences and crime: Aggregate evidence from the Italian regions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 73-81.
    12. Bruce L. Benson, 2010. "The Allocation of Police," Chapters, in: Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Crime, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Mojtaba Ghasemi, 2015. "Visceral factors, criminal behavior and deterrence: empirical evidence and policy implications," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 145-166, February.
    14. King Yoong Lim & Pengfei Jia, 2019. "Police spending and economic stabilization in a monetary economy with crime and differential human capital," NBS Discussion Papers in Economics 2019/02, Economics, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.
    15. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro, 2017. "Crime, Money Laundering, And Credit Markets: Can Usury Exist At The Zero Lower Bound?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1761, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    16. Tomas Williams & Pablo Slutzky & Mauricio Villamizar-Villegas, 2019. "Drug Money and Bank Lending: The Unintended Consequences of Anti-Money Laundering Policies," Working Papers 2019-5, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy, revised May 2020.
    17. Jaewook Byeon & Iljoong Kim & Dongwon Lee, 2018. "Protest and property crime: political use of police resources and the deterrence of crime," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 181-196, April.
    18. Altindag, Duha T., 2012. "Crime and unemployment: Evidence from Europe," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 145-157.
    19. Povilas Lastauskas & Eirini Tatsi, 2013. "Spatial Nexus in Crime and unemployment in Times of crisis: Evidence from Germany," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1359, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Persson, Mats & Siven, Claes-Henric, 2006. "Incentive and incarceration effects in a general equilibrium model of crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 214-229, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Money laundering; Suspicious transaction reporting; Vulnerability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp1893. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michela Pozzi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbbocit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.