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Governance and state-owned enterprises: how costly is corruption?

Author

Listed:
  • Anja Baum

    (International Monetary Fund)

  • Clay Hacknay

    (Harvard Law School)

  • Paulo Medas

    (International Monetary Fund)

  • Mouhamadou Sy

    (International Monetary Fund)

Abstract

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are present in key sectors of economies around the world. While they can provide an important public service, there is widespread concern that their activities and financial performance are hindered by corruption. In the meantime, cross-country analysis on the cost of corruption for SOEs remains scarce. We present new cross-country evidence on how corruption affects SOE performance using firm level data. We find that SOEs perform as well as private firms in core sectors when corruption is low but are significantly less efficient when corruption is high. We also show that, in turn, improvements in fiscal transparency and specific SOE governance reforms have the potential to improve SOE performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Anja Baum & Clay Hacknay & Paulo Medas & Mouhamadou Sy, 2024. "Governance and state-owned enterprises: how costly is corruption?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 181-208, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ecogov:v:25:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10101-024-00311-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10101-024-00311-1
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    State-owned enterprises; Firm performance; Corruption; Governance reforms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General

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