Legal opacity, narcotics laws, and drug seizures

Ninon Moreau-Kastler and Farid Toubal

No wp-2021-191, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: We show that legal opacity is a strong factor in drug trafficking. We develop a new framework that illustrates how legal opacity influences countries' seizure rates. Legal opacity reduces the detection of illicit flows and increases their volumes because it lowers trafficking costs. We use detailed information from financial systems evaluations, international standards cooperation mechanisms, and economic indicators to construct a new worldwide legal opacity index that covers each of the last two decades.

Keywords: Drug trafficking; Illicit financial flows; Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
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Related works:
Working Paper: Legal opacity, narcotics laws, and drug seizures (2024)
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