By Scott W. Duxbury and Dana L. Haynie

Although economic sociology emphasizes the role of social networks for shaping economic action, little research has examined how network governance structures affect prices in the unregulated and high-risk social context of online criminal trade. We consider how over-embeddedness—a state of excessive interconnectedness among market actors—arises from endogenous trade relations to shape prices in illegal online markets with aggregate consequences for short-term gross illegal revenue. Drawing on transaction-level data on 16 847 illegal drug transactions over 14months of trade in a ‘darknet’ drug market, we assess how repeated exchanges and closure in buyer– vendor trade networks nonlinearly influence prices and short-term gross revenue from illegal drug trade. Using a series of panel models, we find that increases in closure and repeated exchange raise prices until a threshold is reached upon which prices and gross monthly revenue begin to decline as networks become over-embedded. Findings provide insight into the network determinants of prices and gross monthly revenue in illegal online drug trade and illustrate how network structure shapes prices in criminal markets, even in anonymous trade environments.

Socio-Economic Review, 2023, Vol. 21, No. 1, 25–50

By Ojasi Gopikrishna

What are the economics of the cyber drug trade that is rampant across the globe? What are the impacts that an illicit online drug trade can have on the economy? How does the economy take into consideration the unreported transactions on the dark side of the internet and what are the positive and negative implications of a widespread trade like this in these globalizing times? This research paper aims to analyze various data and information to find and conclude how the darknet drug trade has had significant economic impact on the international financial sector. This paper also elaborates on why the black market is highly prevalent in the current times and what are the ill-effects of Darknet, in particular, drug trade on the Darknet. The analysis of economic consequences of unreported dealings is also taken into consideration and elaborated on. The paper sheds light on the bleak and disturbing statistics of involvement of various countries in the online drug ring marketplace with countries like the United States, India and Turkey dealing heavily in the illegal Darknet drug markets. A statistical analysis to determine the economic calculations of the drug trade is depicted and conclusions about the economical structure of the dark net drug trade and markets and its impact through the times is elaborated upon. The ill-effects of the Darknet drug trade are highlighted and conclusions drawn in the paper depict the fluctuating condition of the online illegal drug trade market.

Unpublished paper, 2022.