# Prof. Richard Sylla on the looting of small businesses during riots

1 Faculty News April 28, 2015 ![Inc. logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_032187.jpg?itok=TSGPgNt6)>

Excerpt from [Inc.](http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/baltimore-riots-serve-as-lesson-to-small-business-owners.html) -- "Says [Richard Sylla](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/richard-sylla), a professor of economic and financial history at New York University's Stern School of Business, smaller businesses in such neighborhoods may also be seen as exploitative because they tend to charge higher prices, as they are competing on margin against much larger stores that can afford to charge less. 'A motivation \[for looting\] is that you are getting even with people who spend their year exploiting you,' Sylla says."

[Read more](http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/baltimore-riots-serve-as-lesson-to-small-business-owners.html)