This article uniquely examines the drivers of government impersonation across US states. Government impersonation is a relatively new white-collar crime that is slowly being recognized by policy makers and largely ignored by researchers. Results show that it is the decentralized government structure, rather than government size, that significantly affects government impersonation. Greater diffusion of the Internet and economic freedom also contribute to impersonation fraud, while urbanization has a mitigating effect. The share of elderly residents, democratic governorships, or the distance of a state from the nation’s capital did not appreciably impact government impersonation but impacted overall fraud. Interestingly, greater enforcement employment results in more fraud coming to light. Some of the factors impacting government impersonation fraud differ from those affecting overall fraud. Therefore, blanket policies to combat overall fraud would not necessarily be effective in checking government impersonation.

本文独特地研究了美国各州政府冒充政府的驱动因素。政府冒充是一种相对较新的白领犯罪，政策制定者正在慢慢认识到这一点，但研究人员在很大程度上忽略了这一点。结果表明，正是分散的政府结构，而不是政府规模，显着影响了政府假冒行为。互联网的更大普及和经济自由也助长了假冒欺诈，而城市化则具有缓解作用。老年居民的比例、民主的州长或州与国家首都的距离并没有明显影响政府冒充政府，但影响了整体欺诈。有趣的是，更多的执法人员会导致更多的欺诈行为曝光。影响政府假冒欺诈的一些因素与影响整体欺诈的因素不同。因此，打击整体欺诈的一揽子政策在检查政府冒充方面不一定有效。