IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/adv/wpaper/200709.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corruption, privatisation and the distribution of income in Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Rodriguez

    (Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile)

  • Carlyn Ramlogan

    (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Abstract

This paper presents some new evidence on income inequality in Latin America over the period 1980-1999, examining in particular the relationship between corruption, privatisation and inequality. Using a panel data methodology, we find that a reduction in corruption is associated with a rise in inequality. This suggests that while privatisation removes industries from government influence and government corruption, it worsens income inequality as new owners strive for efficiency and profits. The paper highlights the fact that structural reform policies aimed primarily at achieving positive and increasing growth rates do not adequately address the income distribution problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Rodriguez & Carlyn Ramlogan, 2007. "Corruption, privatisation and the distribution of income in Latin America," Development Research Working Paper Series 09/2007, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:adv:wpaper:200709
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inesad.edu.bo/pdf/wp09_2007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rafael Di Tella & Alberto Ades, 1999. "Rents, Competition, and Corruption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 982-993, September.
    2. François Bourguignon & Christian Morrisson, 2002. "Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 727-744, September.
    3. Bowen, Harry P & Leamer, Edward E & Sveikauskas, Leo, 1987. "Multicountry, Multifactor Tests of the Factor Abundance Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 791-809, December.
    4. Fisman, Raymond & Gatti, Roberta, 2002. "Decentralization and corruption: evidence across countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 325-345, March.
    5. Sylwester, Kevin, 2002. "Can education expenditures reduce income inequality?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 43-52, February.
    6. Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 1997. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970-1995," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6804, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    8. Rafael La Porta & Florencio López-de-Silanes, 1999. "The Benefits of Privatization: Evidence from Mexico," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1193-1242.
    9. Morley, Samuel A., 2000. "The effects of growth and economic reform on income distribution in Latin America," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    10. Li, Hongyi & Squire, Lyn & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 26-43, January.
    11. Alberto Chong & Florencio de, 2003. "The Truth about Privatization in Latin America," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm436, Yale School of Management.
    12. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1999. "Real wages, inequality and globalization in latin america before 1940," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(S1), pages 101-142, March.
    13. Stanley L. Engerman & Kenneth Lee Sokoloff, 2002. "Factor Endowments, Inequality, and Paths of Development Among New World Economies," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2002), pages 41-110, August.
    14. repec:bla:revinw:v:46:y:2000:i:3:p:267-87 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Angeles, Luis, 2007. "Income inequality and colonialism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1155-1176, July.
    16. Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 2000. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970–1995," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 93-134, May.
    17. K. Bayliss, 2002. "Privatization And Poverty: The Distributional Impact of Utility Privatization," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 603-625, December.
    18. repec:exe:wpaper:98/09 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Birdsall, Nancy & Nellis, John, 2003. "Winners and Losers: Assessing the Distributional Impact of Privatization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1617-1633, October.
    20. Estache, Antonio & Gomez-Lobo, Andres & Leipziger, Danny, 2001. "Utilities Privatization and the Poor: Lessons and Evidence from Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1179-1198, July.
    21. Treisman, Daniel, 2000. "The causes of corruption: a cross-national study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 399-457, June.
    22. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1998. "New ways of looking at old issues: inequality and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 259-287.
    23. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    24. Hindriks, Jean & Keen, Michael & Muthoo, Abhinay, 1999. "Corruption, extortion and evasion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 395-430, December.
    25. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong, 2002. "Corruption, economic growth, and income inequality in Africa," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 183-209, November.
    26. Bourguignon, Francois & Morrisson, Christian, 1998. "Inequality and development: the role of dualism," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 233-257.
    27. Hongyi Li & Lixin Colin Xu & Heng‐fu Zou, 2000. "Corruption, Income Distribution, and Growth," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 155-182, July.
    28. Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Growth and poverty: Evidence for developing countries in the 1980s," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(3-4), pages 411-417, June.
    29. Sanjeev Gupta & Hamid Davoodi & Rosa Alonso-Terme, 2002. "Does corruption affect income inequality and poverty?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 23-45, March.
    30. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong & Samaria de Gyimah-Brempong, 2006. "Corruption, Growth, and Income Distribution: Are there Regional Differences?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 245-269, August.
    31. M.O. Odedokun & Jeffery Round, 2004. "Determinants of Income Inequality and its Effects on Economic Growth: Evidence from African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 16(2), pages 287-327.
    32. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2002. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1231-1294.
    33. Sunita Kikeri, 2004. "An Assessment of Privatization," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 87-118.
    34. Ocampo, José Antonio, 1998. "Income distribution, poverty and social expenditure in Latin America," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Antonio Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, 2011. "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 959-976.
    2. You, Jong-Sung & Khagram, Sanjeev, 2004. "Inequality and Corruption," Working Paper Series rwp04-001, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2012. "Why is Corruption Less Harmful to Income Inequality in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1534-1545.
    4. Mohamed Dridi, 2014. "Corruption and Education: Empirical Evidence," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 4(3), pages 476-493.
    5. Blackburn, Keith & Forgues-Puccio, Gonzalo F., 2007. "Distribution and development in a model of misgovernance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 1534-1563, August.
    6. Angeles, Luis, 2007. "Income inequality and colonialism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1155-1176, July.
    7. Graf Lambsdorff, Johann, 2005. "Consequences and causes of corruption: What do we know from a cross-section of countries?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe V-34-05, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    8. Humna Ahsan & Keith Blackburn, 2015. "Human capital and income distribution in a model of corruption," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 208, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    9. Keith Blackburn & Rashmi Sarmah, 2006. "Red Tape, Corruption and Finance," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 82, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    10. Sher Khan, 2022. "Investigating the Effect of Income Inequality on Corruption: New Evidence from 23 Emerging Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 2100-2126, September.
    11. Keith Blackburn & Gareth Downing, 2015. "Deconcentration, Corruption and Economic Growth," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 209, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    12. Kyriacou, Andreas P. & Velásquez, Francisco José López, 2015. "Inequality and culture in a cross-section of countries," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 141-166, March.
    13. 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.
    14. Foellmi, Reto & Oechslin, Manuel, 2007. "Who gains from non-collusive corruption?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 95-119, January.
    15. 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.
    16. Keith Blackburn & Gonzalo F. Forgues-Puccio, 2011. "Foreign aid - a fillip for development or a fuel for corruption?," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 158, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    17. Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2010. "Is there a trade-off between income inequality and corruption? Evidence from Latin America," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 102-104, May.
    18. Ben Hamouda, Abderrazek, 2018. "La qualité de gouvernance et le triangle croissance-inégalité-pauvreté [The relationship between growth-inequality-poverty triangle and governance]," MPRA Paper 92207, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Kostas Rontos & Maria-Eleni Syrmali & Luca Salvati & Ioannis Vavouras, 2024. "Competitiveness, corruption, and income inequalities: approaching the ‘Janus’ face of development with simultaneous equation modelling," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 343-364, February.
    20. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & George Economides, 2008. "Fiscal policy, rent seeking, and growth under electoral uncertainty: theory and evidence from the OECD," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(4), pages 1375-1405, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Población; income inequality; corruption; privatisation; panel data; Latin America; instrumental variables.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:adv:wpaper:200709. 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: Lykke Andersen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inesabo.html .

    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.