IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2025-19.html

From drug trafficking to state capture: The dynamics of criminal governance, political violence, and crime diversification

Author

Listed:
  • Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero

Abstract

This article develops and tests a theory of criminal governance, examining how drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) use bribery and violence to dominate resource-rich regions and counter state interventions. The study draws on data on over 500 political assassinations and 156 lethal attacks on politicians' relatives in Mexico since 2000. Using an instrumental variable approach, the causal effects of government actions on criminal strategies are identified. The findings reveal that DTOs use rent-seeking violence to influence the pool of political candidates in high-value areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero, 2025. "From drug trafficking to state capture: The dynamics of criminal governance, political violence, and crime diversification," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2025-19, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2025-19-from-drug-trafficking-state-capture.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juan Camilo Castillo & Daniel Mejía & Pascual Restrepo, 2020. "Scarcity without Leviathan: The Violent Effects of Cocaine Supply Shortages in the Mexican Drug War," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 269-286, May.
    2. Balletta, Luigi & Lavezzi, Andrea Mario, 2023. "The economics of extortion: Theory and the case of the Sicilian Mafia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1109-1141.
    3. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1999. "Distribution-free estimation of some nonlinear panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 77-97, May.
    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. Roxana Guti'errez-Romero & Nayely Iturbe, 2024. "Causes and Electoral Consequences of Political Assassinations: The Role of Organized Crime in Mexico," Papers 2407.06733, arXiv.org.
    2. Burke, Patrick J., 2024. "Veto players and gun violence in drug markets: Analysis based on field observations of eighty drug-selling spots on the Westside of Chicago," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Nicholas Brown, 2023. "Information Equivalence among Transformations of Semi‐parametric Nonlinear Panel Data Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(6), pages 1341-1361, December.
    4. Nicholas Brown & Jeffrey Wooldridge, 2023. "More Efficient Estimation of Multiplicative Panel Data Models in the Presence of Serial Correlation," Working Paper 1497, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    5. Sandra V. Rozo & Therese Anders & Steven Raphael, 2021. "Deportation, crime, and victimization," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 141-166, January.
    6. Iain M. Cockburn & Megan J. MacGarvie, 2011. "Entry and Patenting in the Software Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(5), pages 915-933, May.
    7. Nathan Craig & Nicole DeHoratius & Ananth Raman, 2016. "The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 461-474, October.
    8. Piyapas Tharavanij, 2007. "Capital Market, Frequency Of Recession, And Fraction Of Time The Economy In Recession," Monash Economics Working Papers 34-07, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    9. Breinlich, Holger, 2008. "Trade liberalization and industrial restructuring through mergers and acquisitions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 254-266, December.
    10. Hussinger, Katrin & Pellens, Maikel, 2019. "Guilt by association: How scientific misconduct harms prior collaborators," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 516-530.
    11. Schertler, Andrea & Tykvová, Tereza, 2011. "Venture capital and internationalization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 423-439, August.
    12. Semken, Christoph & Hay, Colin, 2021. "Gauging the gravity of the situation: The use and abuse of expertise in estimating the economic costs of Brexit," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 21/3, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    13. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Doherr, Thorsten & Hussinger, Katrin & Schliessler, Paula & Toole, Andrew A., 2016. "Knowledge Creates Markets: The influence of entrepreneurial support and patent rights on academic entrepreneurship," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 131-146.
    14. Robert M. Feinberg & Kara M. Reynolds, 2024. "State-Level Antitrust Enforcement: Revisiting the Determinants," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 65(3), pages 793-806, November.
    15. Ming, Yaxin & Deng, Huixin & Wu, Xiaoyue, 2022. "The negative effect of air pollution on people's pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 72-87.
    16. Hardy, Wojciech, 2021. "Displacement from piracy in the American comic book market," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    17. Jonathan Colmer, 2013. "Climate Variability, Child Labour and Schooling: Evidence on the Intensive and Extensive Margin," GRI Working Papers 132, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    18. Riju Joshi & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2025. "Heterogeneity and Heteroskedasticity in Endogenous Switching Models: Estimating the Effects of Physician Advice on Calorie Consumption," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(5), pages 540-553, August.
    19. Branstetter, Lee & Chatterjee, Chirantan & Higgins, Matthew J., 2022. "Generic competition and the incentives for early-stage pharmaceutical innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    20. Shah, Nitesh R. & Ziedan, Abubakr & Brakewood, Candace & Cherry, Christopher R., 2023. "Shared e-scooter service providers with large fleet size have a competitive advantage: Findings from e-scooter demand and supply analysis of Nashville, Tennessee," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-19. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.