Tuesday, May 12, 2026 13:30 - 14:45

This event is both online and in person.

SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Online participants are welcome:
Please sign up to our mailinglist (seminar_ceplab) to receive event updates and a link to the seminar online.

About this event

We study how a sharp expansion in Colombian cocaine production propagated internationally through global trade networks, generating substantial social costs. In Colombia, the production surge increased homicide rates by 41% in port areas and by 26% in cocaine-producing municipalities. Violence then spilled across the border into Ecuador, a transit hub with negligible cocaine production but dense maritime trade links, contributing to a nearly five-fold increase in homicide rates. The shock traveled through criminal supply chains that exploit legitimate perishable export routes, notably bananas, concentrating activity at maritime chokepoints. In Europe, countries with stronger pre-shock trade ties to Colombia and Ecuador experienced sharp increases in cocaine seizures linked to these origins, lower retail prices, a 60% rise in cocaine consumption in port cities, and 5% higher violent crime in port provinces. Together, these results show that shocks in illicit markets propagate internationally through the same trade networks as legal trade shocks, concentrating violence at contested logistical bottlenecks and expanding downstream drug markets.

Participants are expected to adhere to the CEP Events Code of Conduct.

Directions

This event will take place in SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH.

Online participants are welcome:
Please sign up to our mailinglist (seminar_ceplab) to receive event updates and a link to the seminar online.

The building is labelled SAL on the LSE campus map. You can also find us on Google Maps. For further information, go to contact us.

Labour Markets Workshops are part of the CEP's Labour Markets programme.