Violent disequilibrium: the influence of instability in the economic value of cocaine markets on homicides

Scholars have investigated the escalation of violence associated with cocaine trafficking. Despite the plethora of literature on the matter, limited attention has been paid to the consequences of instability in the economic value of markets. This study addresses this shortcoming by examining fluctuation of the gross value added of cocaine markets in terms of an etiological factor in the upsurge of interpersonal lethal violence at country level. To this end, the study produces an estimate of the gross value added of the cocaine market in 126 countries between 1998 and 2013. The analysis indicates how expansions, but also contractions, of the value of cocaine markets influence the level of violence within the countries that constitute the global cocaine trafficking network.