We study the impact of an election campaign on the labor market outcomes of incumbent party supporters. Using unique data on voters' political preferences during a pre-election period in Albania and a DiD design that compares the evolution of outcomes among close neighbours, we show that...

This paper examines the relationship between corruption and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in European Union member states using a dynamic panel framework. Using an unbalanced EU panel from 2002 to 2022 and an Arellano-Bond difference-GMM specification, we model inward FDI inflows per...

This paper analyzes the impact of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) economies between 2006 and 2018. The focus lies on Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique since, according to Transparency International, they exhibit...

Many developing country governments would like to attract investment and create jobs in manufacturing and high-tech industries. Heavy and unpredictable laws and regulations, frequent demands for bribes, high taxes, poor-quality roads, slow and inefficient ports, and unreliable power, however,...

This study investigates the macroeconomic impact of financial corruption and institutional weakness on Pakistan's economy from 1996 to 2023, addressing a critical research gap in quantifying the simultaneous effects of shadow economy operations and poor governance on economic growth. Grounded in...

A major concern about the imposition of international sanctions is that they may permanently deteriorate the quality of institutions in target countries, potentially causing an increase in corruption. While case studies suggest that this is frequently the case, systematic evidence is so far...

This study examines how digitalization and institutional quality jointly influence the size and dynamics of the shadow economy across EU member states. It adopts an integrated framework in which digital capacity is treated as an operational extension of state capacity that can either complement...

Ecological sustainability is one of the key dimensions of sustainable development in any economy. Developing economies exhibit high-risk levels in terms of political stability and corruption, thereby inhibiting them from successfully adopting techniques for ecological sustainability. A framework...

A major concern about the imposition of international sanctions is that they may permanently deteriorate the quality of institutions in target countries, potentially causing an increase in corruption. While case studies suggest that this is frequently the case, systematic evidence is so far...

This paper shows that immigrants not only have differential effects on trade based on their skill levels but that they play an additional role in facilitating bilateral trade if their origin country has a higher level of corruption and weaker institutions. Using immigrant stock across skill...

Money laundering poses a serious threat to financial stability and requires effective national frameworks for prevention. This study investigates how the quality of legal and institutional frameworks affects the effectiveness of national anti-money laundering (AML) systems and their implications...

At the request of the Government of Sierra Leone, an inter-departmental IMF team conducted a Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (GCD). The GCD provides a detailed assessment of governance and corruption vulnerabilities in key state functions of fiscal governance, financial sector oversight,...

We investigate the long-run relationship between organized crime and corruption using data from 20 Italian regions over 30 years. As Rose-Ackerman and Palifka (2018) argue, corruption and organized crime often go together. Our study contributes to the literature in several ways in terms of...

This paper analyzes the economic returns to political connections in Brazilian local elections, focusing not only on traditional campaign donations but also on two novel channels: firms that provide goods or services to candidates during campaigns and firms' owners affiliated with parties within...

A series of scandals in Ukraine has shown that Russia’s war of aggression has not put an end to corruption in the country. Although Ukraine’s specialised institutions play an important role in combating corruption, the country’s governance model does not yet meet the requirements of the...

This study analyzes tax reform and its determining factors affecting the tax ratio in Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Singapore by using the Toda-Yamamoto causality approach. The findings reveal five significant causal relationships in Indonesia, including the impact of inflation (I) on the tax...

Objective: This study aims to examine how cultural dimensions mediate the relationship between accepting corruption and engaging in corrupt behaviours. The study examines how cultural traits affect the normalisation of corruption in organisations and societies. Research Design & Methods: The...

Being indebted represents significant risks associated with global financial instability in a world where financial stability hangs precariously between debt and economic growth. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) casts a critical eye over countries navigating the perilous seas of fiscal...

The changing geopolitical situation in the European region has actualized the issues of further EU enlargement. As a result, the relevance of studying many aspects of the functioning economic systems of candidate countries has increased. In this context, the purpose of this article is to...

This paper examines the data sources and methodologies used in economic research on corruption by analyzing 339 journal articles published in 2022 that include Journal of Economic Literature codes. The paper identifies the most commonly used data types, sources, and geographical foci, as well as...

Approximately 42% of European public procurement contracts are awarded to a sole bidder. As this market represents about one-seventh of GDP in developed countries, any inefficiency is a first-order concern. This paper examines a Czech reform that prohibited awarding such single-bid contracts....

To what extent can anti-corruption measures serve to limit patronage and corrupt networks effectively and sustainably in clientelist societies with a prevailing norm of corruption? We develop a political agency model in which office holders are motivated to reduce rent seeking behavior through...

Widening income disparities, higher corruption and larger informality in many emerging market and developing economies (EMDE) including Latin America, all with pressing and mounting fiscal problems, have rekindled interest in the empirical analysis of the key factors determining the occurrence...

Leib et al. (2024) examine how artificial intelligence (AI) generated advice affects dishonesty compared to equivalent human advice in a laboratory experiment. In their preferred empirical specification, the authors report that dishonesty-promoting advice increases dishonest behavior by...

This study investigates the impact of U.S. economic sanctions on internal instability and conflict using a global sample. Our analysis, which includes cross-country and panel data from over 120 countries between 1996 and 2022, shows that economic sanctions increase the risk of internal conflict...

This study investigates whether corruption differentially affects contracting through auctions and negotiations. Using data on Chinese land-market transactions, where corruption is known to be present, we first show that, on average, it exerts similar effects on transactions carried out via...

This article examines how corruption operates as a gendered informal institution that restricts women’s substantive political empowerment in post-socialist democracies. Focusing on North Macedonia, we argue that clientelism and male-dominated party networks function as gatekeeping mechanisms...