Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/252038 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9521
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We show that the War on Drugs launched by the Mexican President Felipe Calderón in 2007 pushed drug cartels into large-scale oil thefts. Municipalities that the presidential candidate's party barely won at the local elections in 2007-2009 exhibit a larger increase in illegal oil taps over the following years, compared to municipalities in which the presidential candidate's party barely lost the elections. Challenger cartels in the drug market leapfrog incumbent drug cartels when entering the new illegal activity, analogous to what is typically observed in legal markets. Since challengers and incumbents specialize in different criminal sectors, the expansion of challengers does not increase violence in municipalities traversed by oil pipelines. At the same time, the municipalities traversed by a pipeline witness a decrease in schooling rates.
Subjects: 
organized crime
War on Drugs
oil thefts
leapfrogging
JEL: 
K42
L20
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.