Money Laundering: A Review Essay and Policy Implication
Posted: 19 Apr 2017
Date Written: April 17, 2017
Abstract
Money laundering is a global business with an international profile. Organized crime carries out this illegal activity to infiltrate in the legal economy, upsetting the balances.
The relevance of the phenomenon aroused the interest of academics and other experts, belonging to different fields. In the last years the empirical analysis carried out by scientists showed that, by means of money laundering, every year the criminal sector is able to held legal assets for an amount equal to a multiplier of corresponding dirty money gained by illegal activity. In particular, it seems that the global legal capital due to criminal activities is about US$ 1.2 trillion. Nevertheless, this value change if we consider the influence of the business cycle on illegal market. Such relationship could realize via two different channels. On the one side, illegal markets grow at varying rates depending on the status of the legal economy. Secondly, the business cycle influences legal markets that illegal operators make use of to reinvest their profits.
In this paper the theoretical and empirical literature on Money Laundering will be surveyed, suggesting some policy implications.
Keywords: Money Laundering, Organized Crime, Criminal Economy, Drug Traffic
JEL Classification: E26 G28, F33, H26, K14, K42
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation