Of Gangs, Pirates and Sumo Wrestling: 3 Thrilling Economics Papers
The field of economics consists of many fascinating subfields. From “classic” areas of research like macroeconomics to industry specific domains like health or sports economics.
In this post, we search for a couple of articles whose research problems stick out even in this wide field of interests, while still being published in renowned journals. For reference we used the Scimago Journal Ranking.
An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang’s finances
by Levitt and Venkatesh see paper
Steven Levitt is well known, for being an “out-of-the-box” thinker and doing research on topics out of the ordinary. So it is no surprise, that he is connected to every article in this collection and also has worked together with the other authors on here.
In Levitt & Venkatesh (2000)[^1], the authors look at the finances of drug-selling street gangs. Not only is the dataset highly special, but it is also of public interest as it provides some rare insights into an underground economy.
It is also worth to note the book Venkatesh (2009)[^2], “Gang Leader for a Day”, that goes in deeper on the topic and further illustrates the work of the social scientist.
An-arrgh-chy: The law and economics of pirate organization
by Peter Leeson see paper
Peter Leeson explores how not companies, but pirates organised themselves to be as profitable and stable as possible in Leeson (2007)[^3]. While this might sound like a bogus idea at first, it quickly gets interesting once you learn that the raiders kept their captain’s power in check and created internal rules by employing democratic principles.
For a great overview on this and other papers by Peter Leeson, visit Steven Levitt’s podcast “People I Mostly Admire”. He has been a guest on episode 31!
Winning Isn’t Everything: Corruption in Sumo Wrestling
by Duggan and Levitt see paper
Duggan & Levitt (2002)[^4] takes a look at corruption. However, maybe not in a scenario that you’d expect at first: Mark Duggan and Steven Levitt investigate, whether there is evidence for corruption in sumo wrestling.
Surprisingly, the authors find evidence in favour of alleged corruption in the sport of sumo. They point out that wrestlers who are on the verge of promotion seem to win disproportionally more often and that this increase cannot be explained by increased motivation alone.
I hope you enjoyed this article and are going to read up on those papers or some of the other contents referred to in this article!
References
[^1]: Levitt, S. D., & Venkatesh, S. A. (2000). An economic analysis of a drug-selling gang’s finances. The quarterly journal of economics, 115(3), 755-789.
[^2]: Venkatesh, S. (2009). Gang leader for a day. Penguin UK.
[^3]: Leeson, P. T. (2007). An-arrgh-chy: The law and economics of pirate organization. Journal of political economy, 115(6), 1049-1094.
[^4]: Duggan, M., & Levitt, S. D. (2002). Winning isn’t everything: Corruption in sumo wrestling. American Economic Review, 92(5), 1594-1605.
Of Gangs, Pirates and Sumo Wrestling: 3 Thrilling Economics Papers
