The Smuggling of Art, and the Art of Smuggling: Uncovering the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property and Antiques

Raymond Fisman and Shang-Jin Wei

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009, vol. 1, issue 3, 82-96

Abstract: We empirically analyze the illicit trade in cultural property and antiques, taking advantage of different reporting incentives between source and destination countries. We generate a measure of illicit trafficking in these goods by comparing imports recorded in United States' customs data and the (purportedly identical) trade recorded by customs authorities in exporting countries. This reporting gap is highly correlated with corruption levels of exporting countries. This correlation is stronger for artifact-rich countries. As a placebo test, we do not observe any such pattern for US imports of toys. We report similar results for four other Western country markets. (JEL F14, K42, Z11, Z13)

JEL-codes: F14 K42 Z11 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.1.3.82
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (71)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Smuggling of Art, and the Art of Smuggling: Uncovering the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property and Antiques (2007)
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