IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sef/csefwp/769.html

The Mafia-Cancer Nexus: Evidence from the Land of Fires

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between mafia-driven illegal waste disposal and cancer mortality in the Land of Fires (Campania, Italy). We assemble a new municipality-level dataset combining standardized cancer mortality rates with georeferenced contaminated sites. To address the non-random spatial distribution of waste disposal, we use variation in criminal infiltration -captured by a Mafia Presence Index - as an instrument for environmental exposure. Municipalities with stronger mafia presence exhibit a higher concentration of contaminated sites, and the resulting two-stage least squares estimates point to a substantial association between waste-related contamination and cancer mortality. Effects are particularly pronounced for environmentally mediated cancers (lung, larynx, stomach, bladder, kidney), consistent with epidemiological evidence for the region. A series of robustness analyses, including placebo outcomes, sensitivity analysis and alternative exposure measures, reinforce the interpretation of these results.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Beraldo & Michela Collaro & Fabio Leone & Immacolata Marino & Domenico Suppa, 2026. "The Mafia-Cancer Nexus: Evidence from the Land of Fires," CSEF Working Papers 769, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:769
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.csef.it/WP/wp769.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), 2011. "Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-6151-8, August.
    2. Boussofiane, A. & Dyson, R. G. & Thanassoulis, E., 1991. "Applied data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Marco Dugato & Francesco Calderoni & Gian Maria Campedelli, 2020. "Measuring Organised Crime Presence at the Municipal Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 237-261, January.
    4. Marco Di Cataldo & Nicola Mastrorocco, 2022. "Organized Crime, Captured Politicians, and the Allocation of Public Resources [“Mafiaand Public Spending: Evidence on the Fiscal Multiplier from a Quasi-Experiment]," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(3), pages 774-839.
    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. Petridis, Konstantinos & Malesios, Chrisovalantis & Arabatzis, Garyfallos & Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 2013. "Efficiency analysis of forestry journals: Suggestions for improving journals’ quality," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 505-521.
    2. Ardavan Babaei & Majid Khedmati & Mohammad Reza Akbari Jokar, 2025. "A new model for production and distribution planning based on data envelopment analysis with respect to traffic congestion, Blockchain technology and uncertain conditions," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 348(3), pages 1145-1181, May.
    3. Davide Lanfranchi & Laura Grassi, 2021. "Translating technological innovation into efficiency: the case of US public P&C insurance companies," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 565-585, December.
    4. Athanasia Mavrommati & Alexandra Pliakoura, 2025. "Performance dynamics in Greek wine sector: a study of technical efficiency and strategic implications," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Halkos, George & Petrou, Kleoniki Natalia, 2018. "Assessment of national waste generation in EU Member States’ efficiency," MPRA Paper 84590, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Claire Cui & Julie Harrison & Frederick Ng & Paul Rouse, 2025. "Data envelopment analysis and accounting measures," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 351(2), pages 1353-1376, August.
    7. Campedelli, Gian Maria & Daniele, Gianmarco & Martinangeli, Andrea F.M. & Pinotti, Paolo, 2023. "Organized crime, violence and support for the state," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    8. Sotirios Varelas & Georgios Tsoupros, 2024. "Key Performance Indicators and Data Envelopment Analysis in Greek Tourism: A Strategic Planning Tool for Destinations and DMMOs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-12, April.
    9. Eskelinen, Juha & Halme, Merja & Kallio, Markku, 2014. "Bank branch sales evaluation using extended value efficiency analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 232(3), pages 654-663.
    10. 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.
    11. Fernández, David & Pozo, Carlos & Folgado, Rubén & Jiménez, Laureano & Guillén-Gosálbez, Gonzalo, 2018. "Productivity and energy efficiency assessment of existing industrial gases facilities via data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist index," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1563-1577.
    12. Sebastian Kohl & Jan Schoenfelder & Andreas Fügener & Jens O. Brunner, 2019. "The use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in healthcare with a focus on hospitals," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-286, June.
    13. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    14. Ozlem Cosgun & Amjad Umar & Dursun Delen, 2024. "Operational assessment of nursing homes at times of pandemic: an integrated DEA and machine learning approach," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1-40, December.
    15. Kohl, Sebastian & Brunner, Jens O., 2020. "Benchmarking the benchmarks – Comparing the accuracy of Data Envelopment Analysis models in constant returns to scale settings," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 285(3), pages 1042-1057.
    16. Pishchulov, Grigory & Trautrims, Alexander & Chesney, Thomas & Gold, Stefan & Schwab, Leila, 2019. "The Voting Analytic Hierarchy Process revisited: A revised method with application to sustainable supplier selection," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 166-179.
    17. Fathey Mohammed & Nabil Hasan Al-Kumaim & Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani & Yousef Fazea, 2023. "The Impact of Social Media Shared Health Content on Protective Behavior against COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-16, January.
    18. Matthias Klumpp & Dominic Loske, 2021. "Sustainability and Resilience Revisited: Impact of Information Technology Disruptions on Empirical Retail Logistics Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, May.
    19. Soteriou, Andreas C. & Zenios, Stavros A., 1999. "Using data envelopment analysis for costing bank products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 234-248, April.
    20. Samet Güner & Erman Coşkun, 2016. "Determining the best performing benchmarks for transit routes with a multi-objective model: the implementation and a critique of the two-model approach," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 205-224, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • P35 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Public Finance
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    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:sef:csefwp:769. 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: Dr. Maria Carannante (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cssalit.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.