Is the Internet an Effective Mechanism for Reducing Corruption Experience? Evidence from a Cross-Section of Countries

This paper develops an indicator of Internet awareness of corruption as described in Goel et al. (2012) to see how this impacts both corruption perceptions and corruption experience. The results confirm the finding of Goel et al. (2012) that corruption perceptions are highly influenced by Internet awareness. However, the effect Internet awareness has on corruption experience is unclear. This paper finds that Internet awareness decreases the frequency of corruption experience of households, while it increases the frequency of corruption experience in firms. Overall, the results suggest that the effect Internet awareness has on corruption is highly sensitive to the corruption measures used and the time the Internet data is constructed.