IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pie/dsedps/2015-206.html

Resisting the Extortion Racket: an Empirical Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Battisti
  • Andrea Mario Lavezzi
  • Lucio Masserini
  • Monica Pratesi

Abstract

In this paper we study the decision of rms operating in areas where organised crime is pervasive to resist the extortion racket. To this purpose we design a case-control study starting from the unique ex- perience of Addiopizzo (AP), an NGO operating in Palermo (Sicily) which, from 2004, invites rms to resist to the racketeers and join a public list aimed at eliciting critical consumption in favour of rms in the list. We study the determinants of the decision to join AP by estimating a two-level logistic regression model. We nd that rm's total assets and rm's age have a negative effect on the probability of joining AP, while a higher level of human capital embodied in the rm and a higher number of employees increases such probability. Among the district-level variables, we nd that the share of district population reduces the probability to join, while a higher level of socio-economic development, including education levels, increase the probability. We posit that these results support the hypothesis that the decision to join AP is based on a cost-bene t analysis and discuss policy implications of our results.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Battisti & Andrea Mario Lavezzi & Lucio Masserini & Monica Pratesi, 2015. "Resisting the Extortion Racket: an Empirical Analysis," Discussion Papers 2015/206, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:pie:dsedps:2015/206
    Note: ISSN 2039-1854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ec.unipi.it/documents/Ricerca/papers/2015-206.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Michele Battisti & Andrea Mario Lavezzi & Lucio Masserini & Monica Pratesi, 2018. "Resisting the extortion racket: an empirical analysis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 1-37, August.
    2. Alaka Shree Prasad & Biswajit Mandal, 2019. "Time zone difference, skill formation and corrupt informal sector: the role of virtual trade," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 261-290, December.
    3. Prasad, Alaka Shree & Mandal, Biswajit, 2019. "Virtual trade between different time zones, educational capital and corrupt informal sector," MPRA Paper 96963, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Giovanni Bernardo & Irene Brunetti & Mehmet Pinar & Thanasis Stengos, 2021. "Measuring the presence of organized crime across Italian provinces: a sensitivity analysis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 31-95, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies

    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:pie:dsedps:2015/206. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dspisit.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.