Shrabani Saha

Citation

Thesis Title
Causes of corruption: An empirical investigation in a cross-country framework

Read article at Massey Research Online:

In recent years corruption has come to be considered as a pervasive phenomenon, and a major obstacle in the process of economic development. This study examines the causes and why some countries are more corrupt than others. The results show that high levels of per capita income, education, income equality and economic freedom reduce the level of corruption. In terms of democracy, an ‘electoral democracy’, is not in itself sufficient to reduce corruption, an advanced fully-formed mature democracy is required. The interaction between economic freedom and democracy suggests that while economic freedom reduces corruption in any political environment, the effect is substantially larger with a high level of democracy.

Supervisors
Professor Rukmani Gounder
Dr Neil Campbell
Dr Jen-Je Su