Publishing Institution: Center for Global Development / Topic: War on Drugs

Author:: Juan Camilo Castillo, Daniel Mejia, and Pascual Restrepo
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: Using the case of the cocaine trade in Mexico as a relevant and salient example, this paper shows that scarcity leads to violence in markets without third party enforcement. We construct a model in which supply shortages increase total revenue when demand is inelastic. If property rights over revenues are not well defined because of the lack of reliable third party enforcement, the incentives to prey on others and avoid predation by exercising violence increase with scarcity, thus increasing violence. We test our model and the proposed channel using data for the cocaine trade in Mexico. We found that exogenous supply shocks originated in changes in the amount of cocaine seized in Colombia (Mexico's main cocaine supplier) create scarcity and increase drug-related violence in Mexico.
Topic:: Crime, Economics, War on Drugs, Narcotics Trafficking, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:: Colombia, Latin America, and Mexico

Author:: Oeindrila Dube, Omar Garcia-Ponce, and Kevin Thom
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: We examine how commodity price shocks experienced by rural producers affect the drug trade in Mexico. Our analysis exploits exogenous movements in the Mexican maize price stemming from weather conditions in U.S. maize-growing regions, as well as export flows of other major maize producers. Using data on over 2,200 municipios spanning 1990-2010, we show that lower prices differentially increased the cultivation of both marijuana and opium poppies in municipios more climatically suited to growing maize. This increase was accompanied by differentially lower rural wages, suggesting that households planted more drug crops in response to the decreased income generating potential of maize farming.
Topic:: Agriculture, Economics, Poverty, War on Drugs, and Narcotics Trafficking
Political Geography:: Latin America and Mexico

Author:: Juan Camilo Castillo, Daniel Mejia, and Pascual Restrepo
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: Using the case of the cocaine trade in Mexico as a relevant and salient example, this paper shows that scarcity leads to violence in markets without third party enforcement. We construct a model in which supply shortages increase total revenue when demand is inelastic. If property rights over revenues are not well defined because of the lack of reliable third party enforcement, the incentives to prey on others and avoid predation by exercising violence increase with scarcity, thus increasing violence. We test our model and the proposed channel using data for the cocaine trade in Mexico. We found that exogenous supply shocks originated in changes in the amount of cocaine seized in Colombia (Mexico's main cocaine supplier) create scarcity and increase drug-related violence in Mexico.
Topic:: Crime, War on Drugs, and Narcotics Trafficking
Political Geography:: Colombia and Mexico

Author:: Rachel Nugent
Publication Date:: 06-2010
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: We are rapidly losing our ability to cure an alarming number of the most serious and common diseases of the developing world because of an invisible adversary: drug resistance. Resistance is inevitable—but careless practices in drug supply and use are hastening it unnecessarily. Without an immediate global effort to safeguard lasting treatment effectiveness, drug resistance will quickly become a widespread threat—claiming lives, raising the cost of curing patients, and making future generations increasingly vulnerable to deadly diseases that were easily cured in the past.
Topic:: Health and War on Drugs

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