IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/8299.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Can we measure the power of the grabbing hand? : a comparative analysis of different indicators of corruption

Author

Listed:
  • Hamilton,Alexander James
  • Hammer,Craig

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal 16 is explicitly committed to measuring aspects of corruption over time, and the identification of robust indicators to do so is an important endeavor. This paper critically reviews the strengths and weaknesses of various objective and subjective indicators of corruption, using the standard criteria of validity and reliability to identify indicators most salient to measuring Sustainable Development Goal 16. Consistent with the large literature in the field, the paper finds that the aggregate survey-based indicators of corruption, especially the Corruption Perceptions Index and the World Bank's Control of Corruption indicator, despite some important reservations and limitations, are the most valid measures of the magnitude of overall corruption in many country contexts. However, in every case, the initial results using one indicator should be cross checked with the use of the other indicator, as there are some minor differences between how the two indicators are constructed, and in practice it is difficult to establish a priori which indicator is marginally more efficient. Furthermore, whenever possible, subjective indicators should be cross checked with objective indicators, even when the latter may be of a more narrow scope and time limited availability.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamilton,Alexander James & Hammer,Craig, 2018. "Can we measure the power of the grabbing hand? : a comparative analysis of different indicators of corruption," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8299, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8299
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/113281515516828746/pdf/WPS8299.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lara Agnoli & J. François Outreville, 2021. "Wine Consumption and Culture: A Cross‐Country Analysis," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 1101-1124, September.
    2. Michael Jetter & Christopher F. Parmeter, 2020. "Reply to “A Replication of “Sorting through Global Corruption Determinants: Institutions and Education Matter— Not Culture†(World Development, 2018)â€," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(4), pages 568-576, July.
    3. Sherif, Mohamed & Chen, Jiaqi, 2019. "The quality of governance and momentum profits: International evidence," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    4. Jinwon Han, 2023. "How Does Governance Affect the Control of Corruption in India? A Configurational Investigation with Fs/QCA," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, February.
    5. José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, 2021. "Measuring Corruption: A Critical Analysis of the Existing Datasets and Their Suitability for Diachronic Transnational Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 709-747, September.
    6. Amine Hammadi & Marshall Mills & Nelson Sobrinho & Mr. Vimal V Thakoor & Ricardo Velloso, 2019. "A Governance Dividend for Sub-Saharan Africa?," IMF Working Papers 2019/001, International Monetary Fund.
    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. Francesca Manes Rossi & Luca Ferri & Annamaria Zampella & Adele Caldarelli, 2021. "La disclosure nei piani anticorruzione degli enti locali in Italia," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(3), pages 153-174.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:8299. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.