IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16282.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Illicit Shadows: An Economic Analysis of Trade Gaps in Cultural Goods through the Italian Market

Author

Listed:
  • Acciai, Elia

    (University of Torino)

  • Belloni, Michele

    (University of Torino)

  • Della Giusta, Marina

    (University of Turin)

  • Segre, Giovanna

    (University of Torino)

Abstract

This paper provides evidence of a consistent gap in the value of cultural goods exported from Italy and the value declared by its trading partners in official trade statistics for the period 1994-2021 and discusses it in the context of the literature on illicit trafficking in cultural property, a phenomenon that plights a number of both developing and developed countries rich in cultural heritage. Differences between the four categories of cultural goods recorded (archaeological goods, antiquities, paintings, and sculptures) are exploited to highlight potential areas where trafficking might be expected to be larger. We construct a panel dataset to estimate a gravity model of the gap including market size, extent of trade, level of corruption and adoption of protective legislation (UNESCO and UNIDROIT) and discuss results indicating further questions to be investigated in this important and to date under researched policy area.

Suggested Citation

  • Acciai, Elia & Belloni, Michele & Della Giusta, Marina & Segre, Giovanna, 2023. "Illicit Shadows: An Economic Analysis of Trade Gaps in Cultural Goods through the Italian Market," IZA Discussion Papers 16282, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16282.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertrand Venard, 2013. "Institutions, Corruption and Sustainable Development," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(4), pages 2545-2562.
    2. Raymond Fisman & Shang-Jin Wei, 2009. "The Smuggling of Art, and the Art of Smuggling: Uncovering the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property and Antiques," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(3), pages 82-96, July.
    3. Joras Ferwerda & Mark Kattenberg & Han-Hsin Chang & Brigitte Unger & Loek Groot & Jacob A. Bikker, 2013. "Gravity models of trade-based money laundering," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(22), pages 3170-3182, August.
    4. Randall Akee & Arnab K. Basu & Arjun Bedi & Nancy H. Chau, 2014. "Transnational Trafficking, Law Enforcement, and Victim Protection: A Middleman Trafficker's Perspective," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(2), pages 349-386.
    5. Sauro Mocetti & Lucia Rizzica, 2021. "Organized crime in Italy: an economic analysis," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 661, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    6. Bertrand Venard, 2013. "Institutions, Corruption and Sustainable Development," Post-Print hal-00874275, HAL.
    7. Lourenço S. Paz, 2022. "Measuring illicit financial flows: A gravity model approach to estimate international trade misinvoicing," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-24, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Muhammad Azam & Liu Liu & Najid Ahmad, 2021. "Impact of institutional quality on environment and energy consumption: evidence from developing world," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1646-1667, February.
    2. Anna Lewczuk, 2021. "On the Relationship Between Civil Liberties and Socio-Economic Development in Post-Socialist States," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 2, pages 5-29.
    3. McCully, Brett, 2021. "Immigrants, Legal Status, and Illegal Trade," MPRA Paper 109610, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. van Krevel, Charan, 2021. "Does natural capital depletion hamper sustainable development? Panel data evidence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Bertrand Venard & Kezang Tshering, 2021. "Barriers to transparency in Bhutan's public administration: A new typology of opacity," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 203-216, October.
    6. Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Azam, Muhammad & Bruna, Maria Giuseppina & Bouri, Elie, 2023. "A cross-regional investigation of institutional quality and sustainable development," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Ahmed Sakr Ashour & Hoda Saad AboRemila, 2019. "A Conceptual Analysis of Macro Corruption: Dimensions and Forward and Backward Linkages," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(2), pages 277-299, December.
    8. Conceição Castro & Cristina Lopes, 2022. "Digital Government and Sustainable Development," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 880-903, June.
    9. Toke S. Aidt & Vitor Castro & Rodrigo Martins, 2018. "Shades of red and blue: government ideology and sustainable development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 303-323, June.
    10. Ellalee, Haider & Al-Qaysi, Israa I., 2023. "Digital Government a Pathway to Sustainable Development," MPRA Paper 118178, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2023.
    11. Forson, Joseph Ato, 2014. "A “Recursive Framework” of Corruption and Development: Comparison between Economic and Sustainable outcomes," MPRA Paper 102211, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Nov 2016.
    12. Mario Gara & Michele Giammatteo & Enrico Tosti, 2018. "Magic mirror in my hand�. how trade mirror statistics can help us detect illegal financial flows," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 445, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    13. Joseph Ato Forson & Ponlapat Buracom & Guojin Chen & Theresa Yaaba Baah-Ennumh, 2017. "Genuine Wealth Per Capita as a Measure of Sustainability and the Negative Impact of Corruption on Sustainable Growth in Sub-Sahara Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 85(2), pages 178-195, June.
    14. Forson, Joseph Ato & Buracom, Ponlapat & Chen, Guojin & Baah-Ennumh, Theresa Yabaa, 2014. "Genuine Wealth Per Capita as a Measure of Sustainability and the Negative Impact of Corruption on Sustainable Growth in Sub-Sahara Africa," MPRA Paper 102210, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 May 2016.
    15. Tantawy Moussa & Amir Allam & Mahmoud Elmarzouky, 2022. "Global modern slavery and sustainable development goals: Does institutional environment quality matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2230-2244, July.
    16. Bebonchu Atems & John K Mullen, 2016. "Outward FDI from the USA and host country financial transparency," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(8), pages 1122-1143, November.
    17. Christian Friedrich & Reiner Quick, 2019. "An analysis of anti-money laundering in the German non-financial sector," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(4), pages 1099-1137, December.
    18. Cho, Seo-Young & Dreher, Axel & Neumayer, Eric, 2013. "Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 67-82.
    19. Guido Friebel & Sergei Guriev, 2013. "Human smuggling," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 6, pages 121-134, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Bob Rijkers & Leila Baghdadi & Gael Raballand, 2017. "Political Connections and Tariff Evasion Evidence from Tunisia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 459-482.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    illicit trafficking; cultural property; trade; corruption; UNESCO; UNIDROIT;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • K12 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Contract Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp16282. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.