The aim of the paper is to analyze theoretically and empirically the impact the macroeconomic cycle has on the accumulation of capital by organized crime, using estimates for the global drug market. So far, the economic literature has neglected the relationships existing between illegal markets, money laundering and the business cycle. We propose a dynamic model where the business cycle influences the criminal economy via two different channels. On the one side, illegal markets grow at variable rates, depending on the health of the legal economy. Second, a pass-through effect can exist, since the business cycle affects the legal markets which criminal operators use to launder their revenues. Furthermore, we analyze the consequences of a ‘saturation effect’ limiting maximum accumulation of illegal capital. We find that overall illegal capital is affected by the business cycle through a capital multiplier; in addition to this, the dynamics of interest rates in financial markets can influence such multiplier.

This paper deals with a stochastic dynamic optimization problem in the context of illegal company financing. Our analysis of the usury phenomenon is conducted by searching for the best interest rate which an illegal financier should apply to a company in order to bring about the firm’s bankruptcy whilst still securing the maximum wealth for the firm’s guarantee. In this case, the company itself can be taken over and used by the financier for illegal activities. Because of the highly complex nature of the problem, the analysis will be performed via simulation studies.

This paper proposes a dynamic model to simulate the relationships between the profits of organized crime, money laundering and legal investments. We develop a macro framework in which organized crime can increase its possibilities to invest in the legal sector by resorting to effective but costly money laundering schemes. The model explores the conditions under which the effectiveness of money laundering causes a positive trend in the legal assets owned by the criminal organizations. We use the model to simulate the total amount of legal wealth generated by organized crime through drug trafficking in different world regions, with particular attention to Europe.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of foreign banks in the restructuring process that has characterized the Albanian banking system in transition from the planned economy to the market economy. The backward state in which the Albanian economy was left after the fall of the communist regime made necessary a plan of reforms of the legal and financial system. The new plan of rules in the subject of regulation and banking supervision fostered the opening of new banks and new branches which increased both the demand and the supply of credits to the private sector. On the assets and deposits side, at the present, the banking system of Albania is highly characterized by the presence of foreign banks. Assuming that, on the one hand, an easier access to credit allows small enterprises to develop and contribute to the economic growth of a country and, on the other hand, that only an efficient banking system lays the basis for an easier access to credit, in this paper we will concentrate mainly on the Albanian banking system with special attention to the role of foreign banks.