Illegal drugs and public corruption: Crack based evidence from California

Alessandro Flamini; Babak Jahanshahi; Kamiar Mohaddes

doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102005

Illegal drugs and public corruption: Crack based evidence from California

Alessandro Flamini, Babak Jahanshahi, Kamiar Mohaddes

School of Law

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Do illegal drugs foster public corruption? To estimate the causal effect of drugs on public corruption, we adopt the synthetic control method and exploit the fact that crack cocaine markets emerged in California in 1981, before reaching any other U.S. state. Our results show that public corruption more than tripled in California in the first three years following the arrival of crack cocaine. We argue that this resulted from the particular characteristics of illegal drugs: cheap technology and rigid demand, which fosters a convergence of interests between criminals and corrupted public officials resulting in a positive causal impact of illegal drugs on corruption.

Original language	English
Article number	102005
Journal	European Journal of Political Economy
Early online date	20 Feb 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102005
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 20 Feb 2021

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

public corruption
crack cocaine
Synthetic Control Method
synthetic control
illegal drugs
law enforcement
difference in difference
organized crime

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10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102005

FlaminiEtal2021EJPEIllegalDrugsAccepted author manuscript, 288 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

Cite this

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title = "Illegal drugs and public corruption: Crack based evidence from California",

abstract = "Do illegal drugs foster public corruption? To estimate the causal effect of drugs on public corruption, we adopt the synthetic control method and exploit the fact that crack cocaine markets emerged in California in 1981, before reaching any other U.S. state. Our results show that public corruption more than tripled in California in the first three years following the arrival of crack cocaine. We argue that this resulted from the particular characteristics of illegal drugs: cheap technology and rigid demand, which fosters a convergence of interests between criminals and corrupted public officials resulting in a positive causal impact of illegal drugs on corruption.",

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author = "Alessandro Flamini and Babak Jahanshahi and Kamiar Mohaddes",

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T2 - Crack based evidence from California

AU - Flamini, Alessandro

AU - Jahanshahi, Babak

AU - Mohaddes, Kamiar

PY - 2021/2/20

Y1 - 2021/2/20

N2 - Do illegal drugs foster public corruption? To estimate the causal effect of drugs on public corruption, we adopt the synthetic control method and exploit the fact that crack cocaine markets emerged in California in 1981, before reaching any other U.S. state. Our results show that public corruption more than tripled in California in the first three years following the arrival of crack cocaine. We argue that this resulted from the particular characteristics of illegal drugs: cheap technology and rigid demand, which fosters a convergence of interests between criminals and corrupted public officials resulting in a positive causal impact of illegal drugs on corruption.

AB - Do illegal drugs foster public corruption? To estimate the causal effect of drugs on public corruption, we adopt the synthetic control method and exploit the fact that crack cocaine markets emerged in California in 1981, before reaching any other U.S. state. Our results show that public corruption more than tripled in California in the first three years following the arrival of crack cocaine. We argue that this resulted from the particular characteristics of illegal drugs: cheap technology and rigid demand, which fosters a convergence of interests between criminals and corrupted public officials resulting in a positive causal impact of illegal drugs on corruption.

KW - public corruption

KW - crack cocaine

KW - Synthetic Control Method

KW - synthetic control

KW - illegal drugs

KW - law enforcement

KW - difference in difference

KW - organized crime

UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/european-journal-of-political-economy

U2 - 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102005

DO - 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102005

M3 - Article

SN - 0176-2680

JO - European Journal of Political Economy

JF - European Journal of Political Economy

M1 - 102005

ER -

Illegal drugs and public corruption: Crack based evidence from California

Abstract / Description of output

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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