Effect of Enforcement Shock on Pushers' Activities: Evidence from an Asian Drug-Selling Gang

50 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2019

See all articles by Kaiwen Leong

Kaiwen Leong

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

Huailu Li

Fudan University, School of Economics

Haibo Xu

Fudan University

Abstract

We study a Singaporean drug-selling gang's dataset and empirically find that the gang's pushers purchased larger quantities of drugs during periods of enforcement shocks caused by enforcement activities targeting the gang's drug supply chain. This counter-intuitive finding can be explained by the pushers' profit targeting behavior. Given that enforcement shocks increased the pushers' cost of drugs, pushers must compensate by purchasing more drugs to sell in order to reach their profit targets.

Keywords: crime, enforcement, labor supply

JEL Classification: J46, K42

Suggested Citation

Leong, Kaiwen and Li, Huailu and Xu, Haibo, Effect of Enforcement Shock on Pushers' Activities: Evidence from an Asian Drug-Selling Gang. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12083, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3323198 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3323198

Kaiwen Leong (Contact Author)

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) ( email )

S3 B2-A28 Nanyang Avenue
Singapore, 639798
Singapore

Huailu Li

Fudan University, School of Economics ( email )

Han Dan Lu 220 Hao, 11 Hao Lou, 128 Shi
Shanghai, Shanghai 200433
China

Haibo Xu

Fudan University ( email )

Beijing West District Baiyun Load 10th
Shanghai, 100045
China

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