IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_9890.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Nexus between Corruption and Academic Freedom: An International Examination Using Mediation Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Salvatore Capasso
  • Rajeev K. Goel
  • James W. Saunoris

Abstract

Studying a relatively under-researched aspect in economics, this paper examines the nexus between corruption and academic freedom. Our main hypothesis is that greater corruption undermines academic freedom and we test this hypothesis using cross-national data for 104 nations over the years 2012 to 2018. Our results support the main hypothesis, and this finding also generally holds across alternative aspects of academic freedom. Another contribution of this work lies in dissecting the direct and indirect (through corruption) effects of various drivers of academic freedom. Finally, additional insights are gained via considering different dimensions of academic freedom and how they are (qualitatively and quantitatively) impacted by corruption.

Suggested Citation

  • Salvatore Capasso & Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris, 2022. "The Nexus between Corruption and Academic Freedom: An International Examination Using Mediation Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9890, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9890
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp9890.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brunetti, Aymo & Weder, Beatrice, 2003. "A free press is bad news for corruption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1801-1824, August.
    2. Kalenborn, Christine & Lessmann, Christian, 2013. "The impact of democracy and press freedom on corruption: Conditionality matters," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 857-886.
    3. Freille, Sebastian & Haque, M. Emranul & Kneller, Richard, 2007. "A contribution to the empirics of press freedom and corruption," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 838-862, December.
    4. Rajeev K. Goel & Michael A. Nelson, 2005. "Economic Freedom Versus Political Freedom: Cross‐Country Influences On Corruption," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 121-133, June.
    5. 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.
    6. Andrew Hodge & Sriram Shankar & D. S. Prasada Rao & Alan Duhs, 2011. "Exploring the Links Between Corruption and Growth," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 474-490, August.
    7. Roberto Ezcurra & Izaskun Zuazu, 2022. "Political equality and quality of government," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 269-293, May.
    8. Dutta, Nabamita & Roy, Sanjukta, 2016. "The interactive impact of press freedom and media reach on corruption," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 227-236.
    9. Rajeev K. Goel & Michael A. Nelson, 2021. "Direct and indirect influences of political regimes on corruption," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1569-1589, July.
    10. Chowdhury, Shyamal K., 2004. "The effect of democracy and press freedom on corruption: an empirical test," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 93-101, October.
    11. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, 2012. "How Bad is Corruption? Cross‐country Evidence of the Impact of Corruption on Economic Prosperity," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 167-184, February.
    12. Christian Bjørnskov & Martin Rode, 2020. "Regime types and regime change: A new dataset on democracy, coups, and political institutions," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 531-551, April.
    13. Niclas Berggren & Christian Bjørnskov, 2022. "Political institutions and academic freedom: evidence from across the world," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(1), pages 205-228, January.
    14. Salvatore Capasso & Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris, 2019. "Is it the gums, teeth or the bite? Effectiveness of dimensions of enforcement in curbing corruption," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 329-369, December.
    15. Robert Gillanders & Sinikka Parviainen, 2018. "Corruption and the shadow economy at the regional level," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 1729-1743, November.
    16. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2010. "The worldwide governance indicators : methodology and analytical issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5430, The World Bank.
    17. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati & Arusha Cooray, 2016. "Do freedom of information laws improve bureaucratic efficiency? An empirical investigation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(4), pages 968-993.
    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. Salvatore Capasso & Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris, 2023. "The nexus between corruption and academic freedom: An international investigation of the underlying linkages," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(3), pages 513-531, July.
    2. Zakharov, Nikita, 2019. "Does corruption hinder investment? Evidence from Russian regions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 39-61.
    3. Michael Breen & Robert Gillanders, 2020. "Press Freedom and Corruption Perceptions: Is There a Reputational Premium?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 103-115.
    4. Christopher L. Ambrey & Christopher M. Fleming & Matthew Manning & Christine Smith, 2016. "On the Confluence of Freedom of the Press, Control of Corruption and Societal Welfare," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 859-880, September.
    5. Jetter, Michael & Parmeter, Christopher F., 2018. "Sorting through global corruption determinants: Institutions and education matter – Not culture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 279-294.
    6. 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.
    7. Le, Anh-Tuan & Doan, Anh-Tuan, 2020. "Corruption and financial fragility of small and medium enterprises: International evidence," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 57.
    8. Bjørnskov, Christian & Freytag, Andreas & Gutmann, Jerg, 2022. "Coups and the dynamics of media freedom," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    9. Rajeev K. Goel & Ummad Mazhar & Rati Ram, 2022. "Dimensions of size and corruption perceptions versus corruption experiences by firms in emerging economies," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 46(2), pages 374-396, April.
    10. Laarni Escresa & Lucio Picci, 2020. "The determinants of cross-border corruption," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 351-378, September.
    11. Changwony, Frederick Kibon & Paterson, Audrey S., 2019. "Accounting practice, fiscal decentralization and corruption," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    12. Kalenborn, Christine & Lessmann, Christian, 2013. "The impact of democracy and press freedom on corruption: Conditionality matters," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 857-886.
    13. Maider Aldaz Odriozola & Igor Álvarez Etxeberria, 2021. "Determinants of Corporate Anti-Corruption Disclosure: The Case of the Emerging Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    14. Binhadab, Nouf & Breen, Michael & Gillanders, Robert, 2021. "Press freedom and corruption in business-state interactions," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(4).
    15. Jonathan A. Solis & Leonardo Antenangeli, 2017. "Corruption Is Bad News for a Free Press: Reassessing the Relationship Between Media Freedom and Corruption," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(3), pages 1112-1137, September.
    16. Goel, Rajeev K. & Saunoris, James W., 2022. "Corrupt thy neighbor? New evidence of corruption contagion from bordering nations," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 635-652.
    17. Mohammad Abdul Munim Joarder & Monir Uddin Ahmed, 2023. "Does natural resource abundance breed corruption? The role of political institutions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(9), pages 1-43, September.
    18. Sanghoon Lee, 2017. "Media Freedom and Social Capital," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 3-18, January.
    19. Binhadab, Nouf & Breen, Michael & Gillanders, Robert, 2018. "The Role of a Free Press in Combating Business Corruption," MPRA Paper 88954, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Goel, Rajeev K. & Nelson, Michael A. & Naretta, Michael A., 2012. "The internet as an indicator of corruption awareness," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 64-75.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    academic freedom; corruption; government; education; democracy; mediation analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    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:ces:ceswps:_9890. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.