IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcecon/v45y2017i1p56-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corruption for sales

Author

Listed:
  • Couttenier, Mathieu
  • Toubal, Farid

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of corruption on foreign affiliates’ sales of German multinationals that differ in their level of experience in the foreign market. We exploit the panel dimension of a detailed firm-level dataset to show that more experienced firms are less likely to suffer from the costs related to corruption. Controlling for persistent and unobserved factors at the country and firm levels, we show that corruption reduces unambiguously the sales of new entering firms, while having no impact on the sales of incumbents.

Suggested Citation

  • Couttenier, Mathieu & Toubal, Farid, 2017. "Corruption for sales," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 56-66.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:45:y:2017:i:1:p:56-66
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2016.11.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596716300956
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jce.2016.11.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melitz, Jacques & Toubal, Farid, 2014. "Native language, spoken language, translation and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 351-363.
    2. Bengt Söderlund & Patrik Tingvall, 2014. "Dynamic effects of institutions on firm-level exports," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(2), pages 277-308, May.
    3. Araujo, Luis & Mion, Giordano & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2016. "Institutions and export dynamics," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 2-20.
    4. Raymond Fisman & Edward Miguel, 2007. "Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 1020-1048, December.
    5. Egger, Peter & Winner, Hannes, 2005. "Evidence on corruption as an incentive for foreign direct investment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 932-952, December.
    6. Kesternich, Iris & Schnitzer, Monika, 2010. "Who is afraid of political risk? Multinational firms and their choice of capital structure," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 208-218, November.
    7. Drabek, Zdenek & Payne, Warren, 2002. "The Impact of Transparency on Foreign Direct Investment," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 17, pages 777-810.
    8. Wu, Shih-Ying, 2006. "Corruption and cross-border investment by multinational firms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 839-856, December.
    9. Simon Johnson & John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "Property Rights and Finance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1335-1356, December.
    10. Jakob Svensson, 2003. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much? Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 207-230.
    11. Kaufman, Daniel & Shang-Jin Wei, 1999. "Does"grease money"speed up the wheels of commerce?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2254, The World Bank.
    12. Alexeev, Michael & Song, Yunah, 2013. "Corruption and product market competition: An empirical investigation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 154-166.
    13. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-11, February.
    14. Katariina Nilsson Hakkala & Pehr-Johan Norbäck & Helena Svaleryd, 2008. "Asymmetric Effects of Corruption on FDI: Evidence from Swedish Multinational Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 627-642, November.
    15. Barr, Abigail & Serra, Danila, 2010. "Corruption and culture: An experimental analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 862-869, December.
    16. Campos, Nauro F. & Estrin, Saul & Proto, Eugenio, 2010. "Corruption as a Barrier to Entry: Theory and Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 5243, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Albornoz, Facundo & Calvo Pardo, Héctor F. & Corcos, Gregory & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2012. "Sequential exporting," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 17-31.
    18. Sequeira, Sandra & Djankov, Simeon, 2014. "Corruption and firm behavior: Evidence from African ports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 277-294.
    19. Fan, C. Simon & Lin, Chen & Treisman, Daniel, 2009. "Political decentralization and corruption: Evidence from around the world," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 14-34, February.
    20. Kennedy, Peter E, 1981. "Estimation with Correctly Interpreted Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations [The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations]," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 801-801, September.
    21. Javorcik, Beata S. & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2009. "Corruption and cross-border investment in emerging markets: Firm-level evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 605-624, June.
    22. Barassi, Marco R. & Zhou, Ying, 2012. "The effect of corruption on FDI: A parametric and non-parametric analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 302-312.
    23. Cameron, Lisa & Chaudhuri, Ananish & Erkal, Nisvan & Gangadharan, Lata, 2009. "Propensities to engage in and punish corrupt behavior: Experimental evidence from Australia, India, Indonesia and Singapore," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(7-8), pages 843-851, August.
    24. Busse, Matthias & Hefeker, Carsten, 2007. "Political risk, institutions and foreign direct investment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 397-415, June.
    25. James R. Hines, Jr., 1995. "Forbidden Payment: Foreign Bribery and American Business After 1977," NBER Working Papers 5266, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Bjorvatn, Kjetil & Soreide, Tina, 2005. "Corruption and privatization," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 903-914, December.
    27. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    28. Rafael Di Tella & Alberto Ades, 1999. "Rents, Competition, and Corruption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 982-993, September.
    29. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Local Corruption and Global Capital Flows," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 31(2), pages 303-354.
    30. Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 2002. ""Grand" corruption and the ethics of global business," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 1889-1918, September.
    31. Habib, M. & Zurawicki, L., 2001. "Country-level investments and the effect of corruption -- some empirical evidence," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 687-700, December.
    32. Facundo Albornoz & Hector Calvo-Pardo & Gregory Corcos & Emanuel Ornelas, 2012. "Sequential exporting: how firms break into foreign markets," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 364, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    33. Emerson, Patrick M., 2006. "Corruption, competition and democracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 193-212, October.
    34. Natalia Ramondo & Andrés Rodríguez-Clare & Felix Tintelnot, 2015. "Multinational Production: Data and Stylized Facts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 530-536, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thede, Suanna & Karpaty, Patrik, 2021. "The Effect of Corrupt Market Experience on FDI: Evidence from Swedish Manufacturing Enterprises," Working Papers 2021:4, Örebro University, School of Business.
    2. Joël Cariolle & Petros G Sekeris, 2021. "How export shocks corrupt: theory and evidence," Working Papers hal-03164648, HAL.
    3. Dennis Ridley, 2021. "Capitalism/Democracy/Rule of Law Interactions and Implications for Entrepreneurship and Per Capita Real Gross Domestic Product Adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(1), pages 384-411, March.
    4. Gaygysyz Ashyrov & Jaan Masso, 2020. "Does corruption affect local and foreign-owned companies differently? Evidence from the BEEPS survey," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 306-329, April.
    5. Balletta, Luigi & Lavezzi, Andrea Mario, 2023. "The economics of extortion: Theory and the case of the Sicilian Mafia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1109-1141.
    6. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram-Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment in oil-abundant countries: The role of institutions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, April.
    7. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2019. "The foreign direct investment-institution nexus in oil-abundant countries," Working Papers 1903, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    8. Thede, Susanna & Karpaty, Patrik, 2023. "Effects of corruption on foreign direct investment: Evidence from Swedish multinational enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 348-371.
    9. Dennis Ridley & Abdullah Khan, 2019. "Decoupling Entrepreneurship Capital from Capital Stock," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 13(1), pages 85-94, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gaygysyz Ashyrov & Jaan Masso, 2020. "Does corruption affect local and foreign-owned companies differently? Evidence from the BEEPS survey," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 306-329, April.
    2. Eugen Dimant & Guglielmo Tosato, 2018. "Causes And Effects Of Corruption: What Has Past Decade'S Empirical Research Taught Us? A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 335-356, April.
    3. Thede, Susanna & Karpaty, Patrik, 2023. "Effects of corruption on foreign direct investment: Evidence from Swedish multinational enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 348-371.
    4. Barassi, Marco R. & Zhou, Ying, 2012. "The effect of corruption on FDI: A parametric and non-parametric analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 302-312.
    5. Ayca, Tekin-Koru, 2012. "Cross-border M&As vs. Greenfield Investments: Does Corruption Make a Difference?," MPRA Paper 42857, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Krisztina Kis-Katos & Günther G. Schulze, 2013. "Corruption in Southeast Asia: a survey of recent research," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 27(1), pages 79-109, May.
    7. Johan, Sofia & Zhang, Minjie, 2016. "Private equity exits in emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 133-153.
    8. Chih, Yao-Yu & Demir, Firat & Hu, Chenghao & Liu, Junyi & Shen, Hewei, 2023. "A spatial analysis of local corruption on foreign direct investment: Evidence from Chinese cities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Yan Leung Cheung & P. Raghavendra Rau & Aris Stouraitis, 2012. "How much do firms pay as bribes and what benefits do they get? Evidence from corruption cases worldwide," NBER Working Papers 17981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Yu Yan & Shusen Qi, 2021. "I Know What I Need: Optimization of Bribery," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 311-332, November.
    11. Hanen Sdiri & Mohamed Ayadi, 2022. "Does Innovation Foster or Mitigate the Corruption Obstacle? Firm-Level Evidence from Tunisia," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(1), pages 367-386, March.
    12. de Jong, Eelke & Bogmans, Christian, 2011. "Does corruption discourage international trade?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 385-398, June.
    13. Bin Dong & Benno Torgler, 2010. "The Consequences of Corruption: Evidence from China," Working Papers 2010.73, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    14. Gossel, Sean Joss, 2018. "FDI, democracy and corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 647-662.
    15. Jan Hanousek & Anastasiya Shamshur & Jan Svejnar & Jiri Tresl, 2021. "Corruption level and uncertainty, FDI and domestic investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(9), pages 1750-1774, December.
    16. Hamdi, Helmi & Hakimi, Abdelaziz, 2015. "Corruption, FDI and Growth: All the truths of a corrupted regime before and after the social upsurge in Tunisia," MPRA Paper 63748, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Steve Billon & Robert Gillanders, 2016. "State ownership and corruption," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(6), pages 1074-1092, December.
    18. Bertrand Venard, 2013. "Institutions, Corruption and Sustainable Development," Post-Print hal-00874275, HAL.
    19. Gans-Morse, Jordan & Borges, Mariana & Makarin, Alexey & Mannah-Blankson, Theresa & Nickow, Andre & Zhang, Dong, 2018. "Reducing bureaucratic corruption: Interdisciplinary perspectives on what works," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 171-188.
    20. Bertrand Venard, 2013. "Institutions, Corruption and Sustainable Development," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(4), pages 2545-2562.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multinational firms; Corruption; FDI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F44 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Business Cycles
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:45:y:2017:i:1:p:56-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622864 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.