Crime and Prices

The impact of organized crime on inter-regional price disparities in Russia is estimated for each year from 1992 to 2000, and over the panel of 1993-2000, using a sample of 70 Russian regions, and that of 50 regions from the European part of the country. The relationship between prices and crime is, for the most part, statistically significant and positive. Organized crime considerably contributes to the average cross-region price dispersion. However, the effect of organized crime has been diminishing over time.