I have been reviewing literature on access to income in cities. I have found studies on labour income, subsidies, credit, remittances, informal economy and non-paid work. There are theoretical and empirical works on the impacts of all the latter on access to income and/or income distribution. However, looking at the link between access to income and crime, particularly drug trafficking, literature only refers to it as a social problem that is present in more unequal societies or poorer communities, or to negative impacts of criminal activity on income. For instance, there are accounts of impacts of incarceration on certain groups (i.e. African American men in the US). However, I haven´t been able to find accounts of the other sign of the correlation, that is to say, possibilities of social mobility being available thanks to illegal income associated to crime and drug trafficking. I would much appreciate suggestions of theoretical and empirical works trying to describe the weight of illegal income in poor households' income, as well as income distribution within cities or countries.
There would be considerable work done on this in Colombia for example
Think for example at the outpouring of popular grief at the funeral of Pablo Escobar
I am afraid I am not very familiar with the specific literature you mention.
However, from a practical point of view, I could observe that in my primary data collection (interpersonal financial support) receivers were not even fully aware of the source of financial support.
Further, as you mention 'poor households' income' - I would look at studies that try to dismantle the production and supply-chain of the mentioned illegal industries. As I would assume the greatest weight of income remains among owners alias richer households while heavily relying on the networks of poorer households for production/ protection of local businesses - paying them off under-proportionally.
The work of Venkatesh on Drug Trafficking could be useful for gathering literature and insights on the economics of drug trafficking at a micro scale:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudhir_Venkatesh
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