Posted on 12/01/2020 1:07:09 PM PST by karpov
How do armed, nonstate actors such as criminal organizations affect economic growth? Nikita Melnikov, Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, and Maria Micaela Sviatschi explore this question in Gangs, Labor Mobility, and Development (NBER Working Paper 27832), a study of how two of the world’s largest gangs, MS-13 (also known as Mara Salvatrucha) and 18th Street (also known as Barrio 18) affect socioeconomic development in El Salvador.
The researchers study a natural experiment that occurred in the 1990s. Before 1997, El Salvador did not have any powerful gangs. In that year, the United States began implementing an immigration policy that made it easier to deport individuals with criminal backgrounds to their countries of origin. As a result, many Salvadoran migrants who were members of California-based gangs, in particular MS-13 and 18th Street, were deported to El Salvador, where they established the gangs and gained control over parts of the country.
The researchers estimate the impact of gangs on socioeconomic development in two ways. First, they use the boundaries of gang-controlled neighborhoods in El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador, to compare economic outcomes inside and outside these neighborhoods. They study outcomes using data from the 2007 census and a 2019 geocoded survey they conducted. Second, they compare the growth in nighttime light density in locations with high and low gang presence between 1992 and 2013.
The results indicate that residents of gang-controlled neighborhoods have worse dwelling conditions and are worse off than those living just 50 meters away but outside of gang territory. Residents of gang areas have $350 lower monthly income than individuals in neighboring nongang locations and are 12 percent less likely to work in a firm with at least 100 employees.
These differences did not exist before the gangs arose.
(Excerpt) Read more at nber.org ...
Easy solution.
Send them home on a boat.
Let them swim from the edge of El Salvador’s national waters - about 12 nautical miles.
It’s America’s fault once again. /s
If it cannot be measured, it is not science.
There are many things that cannot be measured.
The influence of gangs is not one of them.
Did they use reported income or actual income?
The better solution is to send them home in an urn.
Reminds me of a saying in business management. “You cannot manage what you do not measure.” You need to know the metrics before you can make changes that have a purpose towards positive outcomes. Otherwise you’re just throwing a dart.
Simple, El Salvador should prosecute them for crimes and execute them. Obviously the police, judges and legislators are being paid off. Gangs are a symptom of bad government.
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