Firms’ crimes and land use in Italy. An exploratory data analysis

The aim of this analysis is a preliminary understanding of the firms’ illegal land-use dynamics. The paper empirically substantiates whether the firm’s illegal behavior and a set of macro and micro factors can lead to different degree of illegal land use expressed in term of m2. Through a unique data collection drawn from 342 judgments of the Italian court of cassation over the last six years a robust regression with M-estimation was carried out. Findings are interpreted with the idea that any illegal firms’ choice is oriented by a cost/benefit analysis both in case of legal firms and mafia-type organization. Thus the cost of detections as well as the benefits tied to the illegal business are emphasized. Finally, this is a preliminary analysis that has been conducted thanks to the members’ contribution of the Observatory of the territorial development (University of Salerno)