Accomplice-Witness and Organized Crime: Theory and Evidence from Italy
TSE-403 March 2013 “Accomplice‐Witness and Organized Crime: Theory and Evidence from Italy” Antonio Acconcia, Giovanni Immordino, Salvatore Piccolo and Patrick Rey 7 Accomplice-Witness and Organized Crime: Theory and Evidence from Italy Antonio Acconciay Giovanni Immordinoz Salvatore Piccolox Patrick Rey{ March 30, 2013 Abstract We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade-o¤s involved by the introduction of an accomplice-witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public o¢ cials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested by using data for Italy before and after the introduction of the 1991 accomplice-witness program. As predicted by the model and the earlier antitrust literature, the program appears to have strengthened deterrence and enhanced prosecution. Moreover, consistently with a novel prediction of our theory, the evidence suggests that the program e¢ cacy is a¤ected by the judicial system e¢ ciency. Keywords: Accomplice-witness, Criminal Organizations, Leniency, Whistleblowing. We greatly bene…ted from comments by one anonymous referee, the editor Richard Friberg, Ran Abramitzki, Orazio Attanasio, Ciro Avitabile, Sandeep Baliga, Richard Blundell, Dimitrios Christelis, Roberta Dessi, Luigi Guiso, Elisabbetta Iossa, Tullio Jappelli, Jakub Kastl, Alessandro Lizzeri, Riccardo Martina, Dilip Mookherjee, Marco Pagano, Erasmo Papagni, Nicola Pavoni, Adam Rosen and Giancarlo Spagnolo for many useful insights. We also thank participants to seminars in Boston (BU), London (UCL), Milan, Naples, SIE Rome (2009), EALE Rome (2009), Stanford, the 2009 CSEF-IGIER summer symposium in economics and …nance (Capri) and the 2009 Bonn and Paris Workshop on The Empirics of Crime and Deterrence (Paris) for their comments.
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