Putting a price on drugs

An economic sociological study of price formation in illegal drug markets

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9680129
AutoresKim Moeller (Department of Criminology Malmö University—Sweden, autor de correspondencia), Sandberg (0000-0002-1639-6164, University of Oslo), Sveinung Sandberg (Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law Oslo University—Norway)
Año2019
Volumen57
Número2
Páginas289-313
Fecha de publicación2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCriminology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0011-1384 • E-ISSN: 1745-9125
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1745-9125.12202
OpenAlexW2914288123
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas26
Referencias citadas76

Prices in illegal drug markets are difficult to predict. Based on qualitative interviews with 68 incarcerated drug dealers in Norway, we explore dealers’ perspectives on fair prices and the processes that influence their pricing decisions. Synthesized through economic sociology, we draw on perspectives from traditions as different as behavioral economics and cultural analysis to demonstrate how participants in illicit drug distribution base their pricing decisions on institutional context, social networks, and drug market cultures. We find that dealers take institutional constraints into consideration and search for niches with high earnings and low risks. The use of transactions embedded in social networks promotes a trusting form of governance, which enables strategic network management and expedient distribution but also uncompetitive pricing. Finally, dealers’ pricing decisions are embedded in three different cultures narratives: business, friendship, and street cultural stories, with widely varying implications for prices. Our findings demonstrate how an economic sociology of illicit drug distribution can extend insights from behavioral economics and cultural studies into a coherent criminology of illegal drug markets

Context (archaeology · Distribution (mathematics · Earnings · Economic sociology · Economics · Embeddedness · Social science · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Finance