Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Apr 24;15(4):e0231879.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231879. eCollection 2020.

Peer effects on compliance with extortive requests

Giulia Andrighetto  1   2   3 , Daniela Grieco  4
Affiliations

Peer effects on compliance with extortive requests

Giulia Andrighetto et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

We conduct laboratory experiments to study peer effects on compliance with extortive requests. To this aim, we use an "extortion game" with multiple victims. In agreement with our hypothesis, our results show that when the information on peers' behavior is available, compliance with appropriative requests is triggered by conformism among victims rather than by punishment. Moreover, we find that extorted sums are rather small, requests are proportional to the victim's earnings, similar across victims, and are significantly lower when the extorter self-selects into this role. Punishment is rare, but effective. Finally, our results indicate that fairness concerns matter even in a context of extra-legal taxation, shaping both extorters' requests and victims' compliance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

References

    1. Garofalo, L., Rusev A., Sciandra, E., Giemenez Salinas, A., Jordà, C., de Juan, M., et al. Extortion Racketeering in the EU. Vulnerability Factors. Report of the Center for the Study of Democracy. 2016.
    1. Balletta, L., and Lavezzi, A.M. The Economics of Extortion: Theory and Evidence on the Sicilian Mafia. Discussion Papers Department of Economics and Management–Università di Pisa, n.242. 2019. Available from: http://www.ec.unipi.it/ricerca/discussion-papers.html.
    1. Pinotti P. The Economic Cost of Organised Crime: Evidence from Southern Italy. The Economic Journal. 2015; 125: 203–225.
    1. Becker G. Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. The Journal of Political Economy. 1969; 76: 169–217.
    1. La Spina A. editor. I costi dell’illegalità Mafia ed estorsioni in Sicilia. Bologna: Il Mulino; 2008.

Publication types