Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/318226 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] Cliometrica [ISSN:] 1863-2513 [Volume:] 18 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Berlin, Heidelberg [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 531-565
Publisher: 
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
This paper reconsiders the nexus between the abundance of resources and the origins of Sicilian mafia by exploiting a new set of historical data at the municipal level on the Sicilian sulphur industry in the late nineteenth century, obtained from official reports of the Royal Corps of Mining Engineers. Our evidence confirms that sulphur favoured the rise of organized crime, as emphasized in the previous studies. However, we show that the impact of local production on mafia was smaller in the areas richest in sulphur. Moreover, mechanization in the extraction process was associated with lower incidence of mafia. Taken together, our findings suggest that larger lodes encouraged better and more orderly working conditions for the miners, possibly reducing physical and psychic strain and, consequently, their inclination to violence. In other words, the quality of working conditions affected the supply of violent individuals.
Subjects: 
Natural resources
Working conditions
Mafia
JEL: 
N53
J81
K42
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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