Mafia entry costs are lower where a protection class already exists
Evidence
As for the production and sale of commodities, performing “Peppe’s” role requires certain resources. Let us conduct a thought experiment and ask ourselves how we would go about producing and selling guarantees and protection. Assume, therefore, that among our options for a career, if not necessarily a brilliant one, is that of becoming a “Peppe.” If we live in a country where there is already an established class of “Peppes,” our imagination is less severely taxed by envisioning this possibility; also the costs of apprenticeship are reduced relative to those for someone who must start from scratch. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 89
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- XREF: Gambetta’s ‘Peppe’ thought-experiment device directly mirrors how the reader should model the protection firm — treating the mafioso as a producer facing market-entry costs like any capitalist.
Related
- The mafia evolved from private protection in trust-scarce markets. (similarity 0.82)
- Mafia-style toughness deterred ordinary Sicilians from entrepreneurial careers (similarity 0.80)
- Mafiosi are entrepreneurs in protection, not in the goods they protect (similarity 0.80)
- Mafia behavior is rational once considered as a protection-selling industry under competitive pressure (similarity 0.80)
- Mafiosi sell protection rather than illegally produced goods. (similarity 0.79)
- Mafia recruitment requires insider training or psychopathic disposition plus no better options (similarity 0.79)
- Mafia protection is a demanded commodity substituting for trust (similarity 0.78)
- The mafia can be understood as an industry selling private protection (similarity 0.78)