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The mafia is a budget hole

The illegal practices of organized crime slow down development, eradicate innovation and promote rent. Here's why. Pierpaolo Romani's column, Public Notice

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The dishonest entrepreneur drives the honest one out of the market. This is confirmed by the judicial investigations carried out in recent years against the mafias, in particular against the 'Ndrangheta. The relationship between mafiosi and entrepreneurs is characterized by a dual channel: on the one hand the supply of capital that is not found in legal circuits, on the other the desire for quick enrichment. It's always the bosses who gain. The mafiosi have huge financial resources at their disposal which they earn mainly from drug trafficking. To get an idea of ​​this criminal market you can read the 2017 Report of the central anti-drug services directorate of the Ministry of the Interior: for heroin alone, the most widespread opiate on the European market, the "estimated value of retail sales is equal to 6.8 billion euros per year; that of cocaine would amount to 5.7 billion euros". Almost 13 billion euros a year allow mafiosi to heavily influence the economic-financial world and its dynamics. They act like bankers - with the difference that the bosses lend money to take over companies and not to make more money -, they bribe politicians - who can make or not make certain laws - and public officials, who can prevent or hinder controls or alter the procedures for awarding a contract.

28%, the drop in employment generated by the presence of the 'ndrangheta in Central-Northern Italy, from 1971 to 2011, according to a recent study by the Bank of Italy

All this compresses the freedom of citizens and businesses, undermines security and free competition, undermines the quality of work, of the works that are carried out and of services. As Censis wrote, the mafias represent a "ballast" for the economic development of our country. The Bank of Italy also recently attested to this in a study entitled "The real effects of 'ndrangheta: firm-level evidence". From 1971 to 2011, in Central-Northern Italy, the Calabrian mafia caused a 28% drop in employment. It is not true, therefore, that the mafias offer jobs: they cause them to be lost. And when they offer it, it comes as a favor rather than a right. An important book, recently published by Mulino and edited by sociologists Rocco Sciarrone and Luca Storti, entitled "The mafias in the legal economy", analyzes in a detailed way how and why the gangs act and operate as businesses, capable of doing so in both the illegal and official markets. The two scholars from the University of Turin warn that in contexts in which illegal practices or practices bordering on legality are present and socially and culturally accepted, both in the economic and political fields, such as corruption, tax avoidance and evasion, it is easy for mafias to arrive and take root. In such contexts there is often a gray area, made up of entrepreneurs, professionals, politicians and bankers who offer services to mafiosi or, on the contrary, ask bosses for them, in defiance of the laws. Exchanges in this area are characterized by opacity and secrecy and are aimed at the subtraction of huge public resources and the pursuit of impunity. The mafias, Sciarrone and Storti warn, have quickly learned to operate in an increasingly globalized and financialized world, and in their expansion outside the South, they have been able to insert themselves into new territorial contexts, even managing to shape them. Illegality slows down development, it does not stimulate it, it favors the logic of income rather than that of investment, it stimulates neither innovation nor competitiveness. Living with the mafia is neither possible nor convenient.

Pierpaolo Romani is national coordinator of "Public notice, local authorities and regions for civil training against mafias", www.avviblico.it