[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-134359-en":3,"doc-seo-134359-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},134359,549768064622,"Lucas Vance","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8",8,"Research & Report","Weak States: Causes and Consequences of the Sicilian Mafia","The study analyzes why the Sicilian Mafia spread at the end of the nineteenth century, linking its emergence to the rise of socialist Peasant Fasci organizations. In a context of weak state presence, the socialist threat encouraged landowners, estate managers, and local politicians to rely on the Mafia to resist peasant demands. Evidence is developed using rainfall shocks in 1893 to assess effects on the Mafia’s 1900 location, and a later variation-based strategy to estimate medium- and long-term consequences.","[eprints@whiterose.ac.uk](eprints@whiterose.ac.uk)[ ](eprints@whiterose.ac.uk)[https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk)  \nUniversities of Leeds, Sheffield and York  \nDeposited via The University of York.  \nWhite Rose Research Online URL for this paper:  \n[https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/139706/](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/139706/)  \n[Version: Accepted Version](Version: Accepted Version)  \nArticle:  \nAcemoglu, Daron, De Feo, Giuseppe and De Luca, Giacomo Davide (2020) Weak States: Causes and Consequences of the Sicilian Mafia. Review of Economic Studies. 537–581. ISSN: 0034-6527  \n[https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdz009](https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdz009)  \nReuse  \nItems deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item.  \nTakedown  \nIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by  \nemailing [eprints@whiterose.ac.uk](eprints@whiterose.ac.uk) including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request.  \nWeak States: Causes and Consequences of the Sicilian Maﬁa ∗  \nDaron Acemoglu MIT  \nGiuseppe De Feo University of Leicester  \nGiacomo De Luca University of York LICOS, KU Leuven  \nNovember 2018 .  \nAbstract  \nWe document that the spread of the Maﬁa in Sicily at the end of the 19th century was in part caused by the rise of socialist Peasant Fasci organizations. In an environment with weak state presence, this socialist threat triggered landowners, estate managers and local politicians to turn to the Maﬁa to resist and combat peasant demands. We show that the location of the Peasant Fasci is signiﬁcantly affected by a severe drought in 1893, and using information on rainfall, we estimate the impact of the Peasant Fasci on the location of the Maﬁa in 1900 . We provide extensive evidence that rainfall before and after this critical period has no effect on the spread of the Maﬁa or various economic and political outcomes. In the second part of the paper, we use the source of variation in the strength of the Maﬁa in 1900 to estimate its medium-term and long-term effects. We ﬁnd signiﬁcant and quantitatively large negative impacts of the Maﬁa on literacy and various public goods in the 1910s and 20s. We also show a sizable impact of the Maﬁa on political competition, which could be one of the channels via which it affected local economic outcomes. We document negative effects of the Maﬁa on longer-term outcomes (in the 1960s, 70s and 80s) as well, but these are in general weaker and often only marginally signiﬁcant. One exception is its persistent and strong impact on political competition.  \nKeywords: criminal organizations, economic development, Maﬁa, political competition, weak states.  \nJEL Classiﬁcation: P16, K42, H11, H75 .  \n􀀃 We thank Alberto Alesina, Isaiah Andrews, Melissa Dell, Alfredo Del Monte, John Dickie, Camilo Garcia-Jimeno, Nicola Gennaioli, Salvatore Lupo, Nicola Persico, Shanker Satyanath, Jesse Shapiro, four anonymous referees, and seminar and conference participants atthe American Economic Association, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the NBER Political Economy Group, the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, the Petralia Applied Economic Workshop, the Political Economy of Development Workshop, Collegio Carlo Albero, Graduate Institute of Geneva, and the Universities of Caen, Harward, HEC Montreal, King’s College London, LICOS, Luxembourg, Milano, Napoli, for useful comments and suggestions. Stefano Presti, Luca Pennacchio and Sara Moccia provided assistance in data collection, while Mateo Montenegr","cbCaieBtCColz8VQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieBtCColz8VQ","pdf",5759238,2,1,75,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## The Mafia’s historical role in Sicily\n## State weakness and organized crime\n## Paper structure and identification strategy","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper identify as a key cause of the Mafia’s expansion in late 19th-century Sicily?\",\"answer\":\"It links the spread to the rise of socialist Peasant Fasci organizations in an environment with weak state presence.\"},{\"question\":\"How is rainfall used to study the relationship between the Peasant Fasci and the Mafia?\",\"answer\":\"The paper shows that Peasant Fasci locations are significantly affected by drought in 1893 and uses rainfall information to estimate their impact on Mafia location in 1900.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the main medium- and long-term effects of the Mafia discussed in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"The study finds significant negative impacts on literacy and public goods in the 1910s and 20s, effects on political competition, and weaker but often marginal negative impacts on outcomes in later decades (1960s–1980s).\"}]","Weak States: Causes and Consequences of the Sicilian Mafia | 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