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  5. Drugs on the Web, Crime in the Streets - The Impact of Dark Web Marketplaces on Street Crime
 
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Drugs on the Web, Crime in the Streets - The Impact of Dark Web Marketplaces on Street Crime

Author(s)
Zambiasi, Diego  
Uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10197/11645
Date Issued
2020-09
Date Available
2020-10-30T11:39:05Z
Abstract
The Dark Web has changed the way drugs are traded globally by shifting trade away from the streets and onto the web. In this paper, I study whether the Dark Web has an impact on street crime, a common side effect of traditional drug trade. To identify a causal effect, I use daily data from the US and exploit unexpected shutdowns of large online drug trading platforms. In a regression discontinuity design, I compare crime rates in days after the shutdowns to those immediately preceding them. I find that shutting down Dark Web markets leads to a significant increase in drug trade in the streets. However, the effect is short-lived. In the days immediately following shutdowns, drug-related crimes increase by five to almost ten percent but revert to pre-shutdown levels within ten days. I find no impact of shutdowns of Dark Web marketplaces on thefts, assaults, homicides and prostitution.
Type of Material
Working Paper
Publisher
University College Dublin. School of Economics
Start Page
1
End Page
45
Series
UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series
WP2020/25
Copyright (Published Version)
2020 the Author
Subjects

Dark web

Darknet markets

Drugs

Crime

Classification
K42
K24
L13
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/
File(s)
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WP20_25.pdf

Size

1013.91 KB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

624f220935a3f92ad581224d23ccdece

Owning collection
Economics Working Papers & Policy Papers

Item descriptive metadata is released under a CC-0 (public domain) license: https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/.
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