Crimine, sommerso e attività bancaria: quale relazione?

What is the effect of crime and underground economy on the stock of bank lending and retail base? The intent of this study is to provide an answer to this and many other questions, utilizing regional-based combined data from Banca d’Italia, Istat and Ministry of the Interior. The results of the analysis show that the level of diffusion of crime has an impact both on the volume of employed resources and the volume of bank retail base. However, the element that significantly reduces bank lending is the perception families have of crime risk, while the level of violent crimes and property crimes (the so-called economic-related crimes) appears to be irrelevant. With regard to the relationship between underground crime and bank business, the results would seem to suggest that the connection is quite weak. Nevertheless, when the data is broken down according to the macro-sector of activity, there is a positive connection between the level of underground crime in the industrial sector and the volume of bank lending and bank accounts. The exact opposite happens for the underground crime in the building sector, but only in relation to the volume of lending. Lastly, the level of underground crime in the industrial sector seems to boost the capability of the bank system to increase the proportion between the resources collected and employed on a specific territory.