Income inequality and environmental crime in Italy: an empirical analysis at regional level

Our work intends to explore the relationship between economic inequalities and environmental crime. While the relationship (and effects) between pollution and socioeconomic conditions is well documented, there is a lack, to the best of our knowledge, of empirical studies on the link between environmental crime and economic inequalities. Our results could provide a relevant contribution to the economic literature on crime not only because it analyzes a particular type of crime, such as environmental crime, hitherto largely neglected by the empirical literature, but also because Italy represents a compelling case-study given the heavy presence of the so-called eco-mafias,, and the high heterogeneity in terms of socio-economic, environmental, and institutional characteristics at country level.