In 1969, Japan launched a massive subsidy program for the "burakumin" outcastes. The subsidies attracted the mob, and the higher incomes now available through organized crime compensated those burakumin who abandoned the legal sector for criminal careers. In the process, the subsidies gave new...

I document mafia firms’ participation in public procurement contracts awarded following natural disasters in Italy. I exploit quasi-random assignment of municipalities to emergency relief status after earthquakes. I show that, only after emergency status is released, criminal firms increase...