IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2025-45.html

Informality and violence: Evidence from South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Leonard Le Roux

Abstract

This paper studies the emergence of violence in legal markets, with a particular focus on the informal public transport sector in South Africa, where minibus taxis are integral to urban mobility. Despite being a legal sector, the taxi industry is plagued by significant and persistent violence, imposing substantial social costs. Using novel administrative data from the government's operating licence system, route-level pricing information, and a unique dataset of taxi-related violence compiled from print and online media, I examine the interplay between competition, firm growth, and violence.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonard Le Roux, 2025. "Informality and violence: Evidence from South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2025-45, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2025-45-informality-and-violence.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier, 2015. "External Shocks, Internal Shots: The Geography of Civil Conflicts," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 758-776, October.
    2. Herrera, Joel Salvador & Martinez-Alvarez, Cesar B., 2022. "Diversifying violence: Mining, export-agriculture, and criminal governance in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    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. De Haro, Itzel, 2025. "Avocados: Mexico’s green gold, drug cartel violence and the U.S. opioid crisis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    2. Cruz, Iván López & Torrens, Gustavo, 2026. "A two-wave death story: fentanyl overdoses in the US, bullets in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Thiemo Fetzer & Samuel Marden, 2017. "Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(601), pages 757-783, May.
    4. Ciccone, Antonio, 2018. "International Commodity Prices and Civil War Outbreak: New Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa and Beyond," CEPR Discussion Papers 12625, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    5. Massimiliano Cal� & Sami H. Miaari, 2014. "Trade, employment and conflict: Evidence from the Second Intifada," HiCN Working Papers 186, Households in Conflict Network.
    6. Nicolas Berman & Lorenzo Rotunno & Roberta Ziparo, 2025. "Sweet Child of Mine: Parental Income, Child Health and Inequality," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(672), pages 2455-2482.
    7. Richard Bluhm & Martin Gassebner & Sarah Langlotz & Paul Schaudt, 2021. "Fueling conflict? (De)escalation and bilateral aid," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 244-261, March.
    8. Kaplan, Lennart, 2025. "Resolving the puzzle of "reversed favoritism" in African agriculture," Kiel Working Papers 2300, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    9. Hidalgo, Eduardo & Hornung, Erik & Selaya, Pablo, 2026. "NAFTA and drug-related violence in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    10. Maleke Fourati & Victoire Girard & Jeremy Laurent-Lucchetti, 2021. "Sexual violence as a weapon of war," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2103, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    11. Axbard, Sebastian & Benshaul-Tolonen, Anja & Poulsen, Jonas, 2021. "Natural resource wealth and crime: The role of international price shocks and public policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    12. Mathieu Couttenier & Sophie Hatte & Lucile Laugerette & Tommaso Sonno, 2025. "Dear Brothers and Sisters: Pope's Speeches and the Dynamics of Conflict in Africa," Working Papers hal-05029770, HAL.
    13. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2023. "(De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," MPRA Paper 116868, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Laville,Camille & Mandon,Pierre Jean-Claude, 2023. "Internal Conflicts and Shocks. A Narrative Meta-Analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10315, The World Bank.
    15. Bharati, Tushar & Jetter, Michael & Malik, Muhammad Nauman, 2024. "Types of communications technology and civil conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    16. Juan Carlos Angulo, 2026. "Licit Crops, Illicit Gains: Rent-Seeking from Avocado Production," Working Paper Series Sobre México 2026011, Sobre México. Temas en economía.
    17. Amarasinghe, Ashani & Raschky, Paul A. & Zenou, Yves & Zhou, Junjie, 2026. "How natural disasters spread conflict," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    18. Morakinyo O Adetutu & Kayode A Odusanya & Eleni Stathopoulou & Thomas G Weyman-Jones, 2023. "Environmental regulation, taxes, and activism," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 460-489.
    19. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Dominic Rohner & Mathias Thoenig, 2017. "This Mine Is Mine! How Minerals Fuel Conflicts in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1564-1610, June.
    20. Fabien Candau & Tchapo Gbandi & Geoffroy Guepie, 2022. "Beyond the income effect of international trade on ethnic wars in Africa," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 517-534, July.

    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-2025-45. 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.