IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v18y2013i2p290-303.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corruption, democracy and Asia-Pacific countries

Author

Listed:
  • Neil Campbell
  • Shrabani Saha

Abstract

This paper argues that the relationship between democracy and corruption is non-monotonic. When a country shifts from autocratic rule to highly imperfect democracy (an ‘electoral democracy’) it is frequently perceived that the level of corruption increases. Conversely, when the democracy level is already relatively high (approaching ‘mature democracy’) an increase in the level of democracy is typically expected to decrease the level of corruption. To assist with our discussion of these issues, before going on to the empirical part of the paper, we look specifically at the case of South Korea to illustrate how corruption responded to an increasing level of democracy. Using panel data, we find strong empirical support for the non-monotonic relationship. For Asia-Pacific countries, we find that the democracy-corruption relationship becomes negative, at a surprisingly high level of democracy. Moreover we also find that the South Asian region is the most corrupt.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Campbell & Shrabani Saha, 2013. "Corruption, democracy and Asia-Pacific countries," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 290-303.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:18:y:2013:i:2:p:290-303
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2013.778156
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2013.778156
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860.2013.778156?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Treisman, Daniel, 2000. "The causes of corruption: a cross-national study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 399-457, June.
    2. Nelson, Michael A & Singh, Ram D, 1998. "Democracy, Economic Freedom, Fiscal Policy, and Growth in LDCs: A Fresh Look," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(4), pages 677-696, July.
    3. Alberto Ades & Rafael Di Tella, 1997. "The New Economics of Corruption: a Survey and Some New Results," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 45(3), pages 496-515, August.
    4. Kang, David C., 2002. "Bad Loans to Good Friends: Money Politics and the Developmental State in South Korea," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(1), pages 177-207, January.
    5. Emerson, Patrick M., 2006. "Corruption, competition and democracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 193-212, October.
    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. Adefeso, Hammed, 2018. "Corruption, Political Instability and Development Nexus in Africa: A Call for Sequential Policies Reforms," MPRA Paper 85277, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Zeeshan, Muhammad & han, Jiabin & Rehman, Alam & Ullah, Irfan & Hussain, Arif & Alam Afridi, Fakhr E., 2022. "Exploring symmetric and asymmetric nexus between corruption, political instability, natural resources and economic growth in the context of Pakistan," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Victoria Butmalai & Liu Qijun, 2021. "A Perception-based Investigation on Corruption in Higher Education: Evidence from the Republic of Moldova," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 11(1), pages 201222-2012, December.
    4. OUEGHLISSI, Rim & DERBALI, Ahmed, 2021. "Democracy, Corruption and Unemployment: Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 107535, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Askarov, Zohid & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2015. "Aid and institutions in transition economies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 55-70.
    6. Arega Shumetie & Mulugeta Damie Watabaji, 2019. "Effect of corruption and political instability on enterprises’ innovativeness in Ethiopia: pooled data based," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, December.

    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. Saha, Shrabani & Gounder, Rukmani, 2013. "Corruption and economic development nexus: Variations across income levels in a non-linear framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 70-79.
    2. Lindemann, Henrik, 2015. "Budgetary Interests and the Degree of Unbundling in Electricity Markets - An Empirical Analysis for OECD Countries," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-543, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    3. Lindemann, Henrik, 2015. "Does Regulatory Independence Translate into a Higher Degree of Liberalization? - Evidence from EU Energy Regulators," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-545, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    4. Jayoti Das & Cassandra DiRienzo, 2009. "The Nonlinear Impact Of Globalization On Corruption," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 3(2), pages 33-46.
    5. Pieroni, L. & d'Agostino, G., 2013. "Corruption and the effects of economic freedom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 54-72.
    6. Blackburn, Keith & Forgues-Puccio, Gonzalo F., 2009. "Why is corruption less harmful in some countries than in others?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 797-810, December.
    7. Zeeshan Noor Siddiqui, 2017. "Understanding the Linkage among Public Procurement (PP), Corruption, and Tax Morale (TM) Through Agency Theory (AT): A Review," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 9(3), pages 258-288, September.
    8. Majeed, Muhammad Tariq & MacDonald, Ronald, 2010. "Corruption and the Military in Politics: Theory and Evidence from around the World," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-91, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    9. Keith Blackburn & Rashmi Sarmah, 2006. "Red Tape, Corruption and Finance," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0639, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    10. Keith Blackburn & Niloy Bose & M. Emranul Haque, 2011. "Public Expenditures, Bureaucratic Corruption And Economic Development," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(3), pages 405-428, June.
    11. Lv, Zhike, 2017. "Intelligence and corruption: An empirical investigation in a non-linear framework," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 83-91.
    12. Lalountas, Dionisios A. & Manolas, George A. & Vavouras, Ioannis S., 2011. "Corruption, globalization and development: How are these three phenomena related?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 636-648, July.
    13. Gabriel Caldas Montes & Paulo Henrique Luna, 2021. "Fiscal transparency, legal system and perception of the control on corruption: empirical evidence from panel data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 2005-2037, April.
    14. 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.
    15. Guy Elaad & Alex Krumer & Jeffrey Kantor, 2018. "Corruption and Sensitive Soccer Games: Cross-Country Evidence," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 364-394.
    16. M. Emranul Haque & Richard Kneller, 2007. "Business Cycle Synchronization of the Euro Area with the New and Negotiating Member Countries," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 92, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    17. Sukirno & Wahidin Septa Zahran & Rousdy Safari Tamba & Suparman, 2020. "Personality Traits to Develop Entrepreneurship Skills of College Students: A Case study of Student Entrepreneurial Program," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 12(1), pages 229-239, October.
    18. Mishra, Sudhanshu K, 2018. "A Simultaneous Equation Model of Globalization, Corruption, Democracy, Human Development and Social Progress," MPRA Paper 84213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Keith Blackburn & Niloy Bosey & Salvatore Capasso, 2008. "Living With Corruption: Threshold Effects in Red Tape and Rent Seeking," Working Papers 4_2008, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.

    More about this item

    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:taf:rjapxx:v:18:y:2013:i:2:p:290-303. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rjap .

    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.