The Bonfire of Banknotes

In this paper we examine the role played by cash in crime. Our sources include research papers by economists (which point to a link between cash and corruption/shadow economy), works by crime scholars, and reports by international institutions and law enforcement agencies. Overall, opinions differ on how best to frame such role, as cash could be broadly regarded as a component of crime (our opinion), a catalyst, or even a cause of it. This range of views partly owes to the fact that good quality data with enough time depth are not easily available in this field of research. As an additional factor of complexity, crime is a multi-line business and the odds are that cash weighs more prominently on, say, the street selling of drugs than on wholesale segments. Finally, the role played by cash in criminal activity ought to be cast against the complexity and financial dimension of crime in our days, including its ongoing transition toward crypto-assets and the Darknet. The paper thus explores this dimension too