Abstract
This paper develops a model of a war against illegal drug producers. This war occurs on two fronts. First, to prevent the cultivation of crops the state engages the drug producers in conflict over the control of land. Second, to impede further the production and exportation of drugs the state attempts to eradicate crops and to interdict drug shipments. The model includes an interested outsider who uses both a stick and a carrot to strengthen the resolve of the state in its war against drug producers. We use numerical calibrations of the model to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of Plan Colombia.
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The authors wish to thank an anonymous referee, Michelle Garfinkel, Jean Hindriks, Carlos Esteban Posada, and Marc St-Pierre for helpful comments and suggestions, as well as seminar participants at Brown, Yale, the CEPR conference on Crime and Conflicts, Marseilles, October 2004, LACEA, San José, November 2004, the AEA meetings, Philadelphia, January 2005, the ESWC, London, August 2005, and Banco de la República.
Herschel Grossman died on October 9, 2004 in Marseilles during a conference where we were presenting this paper.
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Grossman, H.I., Mejía, D. The war against drug producers. Economics of Governance 9, 5–23 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10101-007-0036-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10101-007-0036-1