to violence in markets without third party enforcement. We construct a model in which supply shortages increase total … 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 …

This paper proposes a new identification strategy to estimate the causal impact of illicit drug markets on violence … municipalities that we use as an instrument to uncover the causal effect of illegal cocaine markets on violence. We find that a 10 … violence as different armed groups fight each other, the government and the civil population for their control and extraction. …

Since the middle ages, when Europe was still at a Malthusian stage of development, interpersonal violence has been in … steady decline, and institutions and norms limiting violence – in particular property rights – have expanded. Here we put … forward a Malthusian model of violence where these trends can be interpreted as a response to easing population pressure …

We use data from a unique survey of members of drug-trafficking gangs in favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to … experience and involvement in gang-related violence. The two-year mortality rate in the sample of gang-members reaches 20%, with … the probability of death increasing with initial involvement in gang violence and with personality traits associated with …