EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances

Steven Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2000, vol. 115, issue 3, 755-789

Abstract: We use a unique data set detailing the financial activities of a drug-selling street gang to analyze gang economics. On average, earnings in the gang are somewhat above the legitimate labor market alternative. The enormous risks of drug selling, however, more than offset this small wage premium. Compensation within the gang is highly skewed, and the prospect of future riches, not current wages, is the primary economic motivation. The gang engages in repeated gang wars and sometimes prices below marginal cost. Our results suggest that economic factors alone are unlikely to adequately explain individual participation in the gang or gang behavior.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (134)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1162/003355300554908 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances (1998) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:115:y:2000:i:3:p:755-789.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics is currently edited by Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan Nunn, Andrei Shleifer and Stefanie Stantcheva

More articles in The Quarterly Journal of Economics from President and Fellows of Harvard College
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press (joanna.bergh@oup.com).

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:115:y:2000:i:3:p:755-789.