Size matters: Corruption perceptions versus corruption experiences by firms in emerging economies

Ein Vortrag von Rajeev K Goel (Illinois State University) im Rahmen der Seminarreihe des AB Ökonomie am IOS.

Introducing a distinction between a firm’s perception of corruption and its experience of corruption, this study uses a large firm-level data set covering more than 80 countries to explore the effects of firm-size, city-size, and government-size on perceived and experienced corruption. Four points summarize our main findings, which seem both instructive and new. First, there is a broad structural similarity in the major determinants of perceived and experienced corruption. Second, in particular, larger firm size and larger government size lower perceptions and experience of corruption. Third, however, larger city size raises both perception and experience of corruption. Fourth, when the sample is limited to large cities, the corruption-lowering effect of government size loses significance for both perceptions and experience, while firm size loses significance in experience regressions. Several methodological considerations suggest that the broad pattern of estimates is fairly sturdy, and the magnitude of the effects is substantial.