http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org daily 1 2010-06-18T23:11:49Z http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/electoral-accountability-and-the-uk-parliamentary-expenses-scandal-did-voters-punish-corrupt-mps The 2009 UK expenses scandal brought to light the scope of MPs’ use of their allowances and has led to public outrage regarding the politicians’ abuse of power. In this study, Eggers and Fisher examine voters’ electoral response to revelations of corruption, employing four distinct measures of corruption implications. Their results show that electoral outcomes were affected by the expenses scandal during the course of the 2010 general election; however, the intuitive predictions do not correspond to the findings directly. No publisher avoznaya 2012-05-04T17:05:12Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/the-marginal-rate-of-corruption-in-public-programs In this article Niehaus and Sukhantankar study the effects of corruption on the scaling up of a large rural welfare program. They ask the following question: for every dollar added to an existing welfare program how much will end up in the pockets of state officials? No publisher pbachas 2012-04-17T09:55:54Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/the-rule-of-law-in-independent-kosovo The latest International Crisis Group report reviews the state of the police and courts in the young Balkan state and recommends that the government, the European Union rule of law mission (EULEX) and the wider international community work to fight corruption, adopt needed legal reforms, recruit more judges and prosecutors and improve training. Key players should also address the particular weaknesses of law enforcement in Serb-held northern Kosovo by facilitating the appointment of Albanian and Serb judges and engaging local police. No publisher fnawaz 2012-04-16T14:09:19Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/implementing-financial-disclosure-in-local-government-content-scope-and-standardization According to Transparency International, "disclosure is to politics what financial statements are to business". How effective is the financial disclosure regime in South Africa, and what can be done to strengthen this potentially powerful tool? This policy brief is produced by the Governance and Corruption Division of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). It is an output of a project which aims to manage and detect conflicts of interest in public life, thereby promoting transparency and accountability in South Africa. No publisher shireen 2012-04-16T12:58:47Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/frontpage-articles/shell-companies-and-puppet-masters In this Featured Research Article Jason Sharman takes a hard-hitting look at the role of shell companies in facilitating corrupt transactions. No publisher fnawaz 2012-04-11T15:24:52Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/corruption-in-developing-countries The past 10-15 years have seen an increase in anticorruption initiatives that are based on the belief that corruption may be reduced if proper incentives are implemented and focused towards politicians, bureaucrats, and civil society. These initiatives include, but are not limited to, the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, the UN convention against corruption, strengthening World Bank Group engagement on governance and anti-corruption, and increased enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In this article, Olken and Pande compare the findings of different studies in order to evaluate the validity of this belief. This includes a comparison of corruption measurement tools, efficiency costs, and ideas to curb corruption. No publisher aguth 2012-04-20T16:17:17Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/frontpage-articles/2011-acrn-research-paper-contest-winners-announced We are very happy to announce the results of the 2011 ACRN Research Paper contest. This contest aims to give young scholars an opportunity to take up the challenge of filling important knowledge gaps, present innovative approaches for measuring and understanding corruption and showcase new findings on what works and what does not in tackling corruption. This year’s competition was intended for young scholars who are graduate students, post-doctoral fellows or scholars who have completed their PhDs within the last three years. The contest was made possible by the generous contributions of Transparency International, the Quality of Government Institute and the Institute for Security Studies. No publisher fnawaz 2012-04-05T07:16:19Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/need-versus-greed-corruption The paper ‘Why Pay Bribes? Collective Action and Anti-Corruption Efforts’ by Monika Bauhr & Naghmeh Nasiritousi, makes an important contribution to the literature on corruption by drawing a new distinction between different kinds of corruption: need and greed. While most existing typologies and measures of corruption focus on the scale of corruption, this paper emphasizes its character, and in particular, the basic motivations for engaging in corruption in the first place. Need corruption occurs when citizens pay a bribe for services they are legally entitled to, like health services. Greed corruption is about bribes that confer personal advantages which the citizen is not legally entitled to, such as paying an official for a government contract. The former entails extortion, as it involves an extra-legal premium on citizens’ entitlements. The latter takes the form of collusion, as a number of actors work together for their mutual benefit. No publisher mdarcy 2012-03-21T10:33:47Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/china2019s-2018institutional-turn2019-towards-integrity-management This article focuses on the gradual ‘turn’ of China’s old campaign-style anti-corruption strategy towards a more institutionalised management of integrity. The Chinese public administration has suffered from years of rampant and accelerating corruption amid the frequent political campaigns and increasingly severe sanctions against corrupt officials. While admitting that controlling corruption has become more and more challenging due to the growing complexity of corruption modes and techniques, the Chinese government finally acknowledged the lack of effectiveness of the campaign-style anti-corruption enforcement and underlined the importance of corruption prevention through the promotion of government integrity. No publisher mtremblay 2012-03-19T16:46:53Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/from-islands-of-integrity-to-understanding-the-politics-of-corruption-reduction Under what circumstances does a reduction in the patterns of corruption occur? To what extent is this associated with changing structural conditions, or with formal or informal institutional change, or with more effective implementation? To what extent can it be attributed to the role of individuals, organisations and coalitions that pursue and promote reform? How do such factors combine? Why have some public organisations or sectors seen a reduction in corruption (or a greater reduction than might be expected) while others have not? What explains the differences across or within countries and sectors? No publisher fnawaz 2012-03-12T11:43:04Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/looking-beyond-the-incumbent-the-effects-of-exposing-corruption-on-electoral-outcomes The authors of this paper probe the effects of information about corruption on electoral outcomes, focussing on how availability of such information influences voter participation and support for opposition parties. Building on existing research that shows that access to information serves as a mean to hold politicians accountable, the authors posit that while information about political corruption may indeed reduce support for corrupt incumbents, in certain conditions, it is also likely to decrease voter participation and support for political challengers. No publisher avoznaya 2012-03-13T07:34:25Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/greasing-the-wheels-the-impact-of-regulations-and-corruption-on-firm-entry Dreher and Gassebner use empirical research methods to analyse the impact of corruption on strictly regulated entrepreneurial activities. Ultimately, the paper examines whether corruption can grease the wheels of an economy and increase economic growth. It hypothesises that “Corruption increases firm entry rates in the presence of administrative barriers to entry.” The research spans 43 countries over the years of 2003-2005 using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). GEM mainly uses survey sizes of over 2000 individuals located at local universities. No publisher aguth 2012-03-07T19:43:26Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/the-effectiveness-of-anti-corruption-policy.-what-has-worked-what-hasn2019t-and-what-we-don2019t-know The conclusions of this study constitute an important contribution to a much needed discussion on the elements of a successful anti-corruption policy. Crucially, the study shows that in order to be effective, successful anti-corruption monitoring programmes have to meet two important requirements: firstly, they must be implemented by a party who seeks to reduce corruption, and secondly, they must be combined with a financial or non-financial incentive programme. In addition, the above study provides a set of concrete recommendations for improving the effectiveness of anti-corruption strategies that can be applied by both international and domestic policy makers. No publisher pmason 2012-03-13T07:37:05Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/symmetric-vs.-asymmetric-punishment-regimes-for-bribery This paper presents a behavioural experiment designed to test the decision-making process around bribery according to punishment strategies. This experiment was conducted in Bonn and Shanghai with 192 students. In the vein of behavioural economics, the authors designed a lab experiment to investigate the effect of punishment regimes on bribery behaviours. Observing that two types of legal frameworks coexist for penalizing bribery, the authors question their relative effectiveness in preventing corruption. Symmetric punishment regimes are legal frameworks that equally penalize bribers and recipients, whereas asymmetric regimes tend to punish the recipient more harshly. No publisher thomasroca 2012-02-27T16:42:40Z Research Article http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/articles/predictable-corruption-and-firm-investment-evidence-from-a-natural-experiment-and-survey-of-cambodian-entrepreneurs This paper tests a long-standing hypothesis that has achieved ‘assumption-like’ status in the literature without rigorous empirical validation, that the predictability of corruption is as important to firms as is the level of corruption. It also offers several methodological innovations in the measurement of corruption. No publisher smcgirr 2012-02-23T13:52:42Z Research Article