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The Consequences of Corruption: Evidence from China

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  • Bin Dong
  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

With complementary Chinese data sets and alternative corruption measures, we explore the consequences of corruption. Adopting a novel approach we provide evidence that corruption can have both, positive and negative effects, on economic development. The overall impact of corruption might be the balance of the two simultaneous effects within a specific institutional environment ("grease the wheels" and "sand the wheels"). Corruption is observed to considerably increase income inequality in China. We also find that corruption strongly reduces tax revenue. Looking at things from an expenditure point of view we observe that corruption significantly decreases government spending on education, R&D and public health in China. We also observe that regional corruption significantly reduces inbound foreign direct investment in Chinese regions, which indicates that the pollution haven hypothesis may not hold in China. This finding sheds a new light on the "China puzzle" that China is the largest developing host of FDI while it is appears to be very corrupt. Finally we observe that corruption substantially aggravates pollution probably through loosening environment regulation, and that it modifies the effects of trade openness and FDI on the stringency of environmental policy in a manner opposite to that observed in literature to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Bin Dong & Benno Torgler, 2010. "The Consequences of Corruption: Evidence from China," CREMA Working Paper Series 2010-06, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2010-06
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    Cited by:

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    3. 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.
    4. Qu, Guangjun & Sylwester, Kevin & Wang, Feng, 2016. "Anticorruption and Growth: Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 72190, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Ren, Yi-Shuai & Ma, Chao-Qun & Apergis, Nicholas & Sharp, Basil, 2021. "Responses of carbon emissions to corruption across Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Bo Sui & Gen-Fu Feng & Chun-Ping Chang, 2018. "The pioneer evidence of contagious corruption," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 945-968, March.
    7. Liu, Baohua & Lin, Yan & Chan, Kam C. & Fung, Hung-Gay, 2018. "The dark side of rent-seeking: The impact of rent-seeking on earnings management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 94-107.
    8. Buia, Raluca E. & Molinari, M. Cristina, 2012. "Corruption and positive selection in privatization," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 297-304.
    9. Wang, Shuhong & Zhao, Danqing & Chen, Hanxue, 2020. "Government corruption, resource misallocation, and ecological efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corruption; China; Government; Economic Development; Inequality; Environment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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