On the Macroeconomic Effect of Extortion: An Agent-Based Approach

This work proposes an agent-based approach to study the effect of extortion on macroeconomic aggregates, despite the scarce data about this criminal activity resulting from its hidden nature. The main idea is to simulate both a healthy economy without extortion and the same economy under the influence of extortion, comparing then the macroeconomic signals produced in both cases. For this, the Bottom-up Adaptive Macroeconomics (BAM) model was implemented and validated in order to simulate an economy with healthy macroeconomic signals, i.e., moderate inflation, as well as a reasonable unemployment rate. The BAM model defines the usual interactions among workers, firms, and banks in labor, goods and credit markets. Then, crime is introduced by defining the propensity of the poorest workers to become extortionists, as well the efficiency of the police in terms of the probability of capturing them. The definition of the BAM under Extortion Racket Systems (BAMERS) model is completed with a threshold for the firms rejecting the extortion. These parameters are explored exhaustively and independently. Results show that even low levels of propensity towards extortion are enough to notice considerable negative effects as a marked contraction of the Gross Domestic Product and an increase of the unemployment rate, consistent with the few data known about the macroeconomic effect of extortion. Effects on consume, Gini index, inflation, and wealth distribution are also reported. Interestingly, our results suggest that it is more convenient to prevent extortion, rather than combat it once deployed, i.e., there is no police efficiency level that achieves the healthy macroeconomic signals observed in the absence of extortion.

Automated summary

This study proposes an agent-based approach to simulate the impact of extortion on macroeconomic aggregates. Results show that even low levels of propensity towards extortion can lead to significant negative effects, and there is no police efficiency level that can achieve healthy macroeconomic signals in the absence of extortion.