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This article is the first to examine whether bribery hurts or promotes policy consistency for firms confronting institutional and credit constraints by using World Bank Enterprise Surveys covering 104 developing countries from 2002 to 2006. By using the questionnaire that is only available in the 2002-2006 survey, policy consistency is measured by firms' perception of the degree of consistency in officials' interpretation of the law. Bribery reduces the consistency of policy implementation. The adverse impact of bribery on policy consistency is evident only in lower-income countries. Furthermore, these effects become more significant for firms facing institutional and credit constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does frontline corruption influence individuals' decisions to emigrate? Existing research has found that perceptions of grand political corruption promote emigration, particularly among the highly educated. In this article, we shift the focus to the role of frontline corruption in driving emigration decisions and distinguish between the effects of the payment of bribes to frontline bureaucrats and those of nepotism in public employment. Using data from the Balkan Barometer for the period 2018–21, we find that both bribe-paying experiences and perceived public-sector nepotism are important emigration drivers. Our findings also reveal that the more highly educated an individual is, the greater the influence of perceived nepotism on the emigration decision. However, the influence of first-hand experiences with bribery is larger and remains similar across education categories. Our analysis emphasizes the need to disaggregate the varied manifestations of corruption when examining the determinants of (high-skilled) emigration. This article contributes to our understanding of the drivers of emigration in the Western Balkans and the wider corruption–migration nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Annals of Criminology is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper makes the most of the observed actions of bribe takers and givers from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and studies how a taker's action influences a giver's decision to pay bribes. To motivate our empirical study, we consider Kaufmann and Wei's (1999) Stackelberg game between a tax authority and a firm that undergoes tax inspection. The model predicts that, when the authority can use its action as a credible threat for the firm's profitability, the authority disturbs the firm by inspecting more, and the firm is more likely to pay bribes. Consistent with the theoretical prediction, we find correlational evidence that the propensity to pay bribes increases with the number of inspection visits, particularly for non-democratic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do citizens tolerate corrupt, but competent, politicians? This paper formally establishes conditions under which citizens trade off corruption for competence. First, the regime has to be sufficiently democratic such that a corrupt politician has to be acceptable to a large enough coalition of citizens in order to stay in power. Second, institutions are such that the politician can more easily obtain rents by taking bribes in exchange for spending revenues on public goods, rather than by stealing the revenues outright: the former case can generate more public goods than the latter. Under these two conditions, competence sustains corruption, and vice-versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the impact of different facets of corruption on domestic investment (DI) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) economies. The main purpose of this empirical research to assess the influence of bribes, abuse of public office and nepotism on domestic investment in 14 MENA countries over the period 2005–2022. The results of 2SLS model indicate that corruption could affect negatively on domestic investments through two channels, namely: illegal payments (bribes) and the abuse of public office for private gain. In this case, the regulators and decision makers have to formulate new strategies that aimed particularly to fight these kinds of corruption to increase domestic investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to illustrate how bribery and fake news in Eastern European countries can affect businesses across Europe. Countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary represent sizeable and potential markets. Thanks to their European Union membership and low labor costs, these markets could offer many investment opportunities to international managers. Consequently, this study focuses on the challenge of corruption encountered by international managers and the necessary precautions before committing financial resources to these countries. Design/methodology/approach: For this study, 10 informal interviews with presumed providers of illegal services were used to investigate the previously unexplored innovative research question. Informal interviews were conducted with individuals who can be assumed to have experience or knowledge in the field of corruption in multinational corporations. Findings: The results show the potential impact of corruption on international managers in Eastern Europe. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by examining two forms of corruption: bribing journalists to publish fake news to harm commercial rivals and bribing public officials to manufacture legal proceedings against business competitors. The following will also highlight how a corrupt judicial system can have implications abroad and what problems this may raise for mutual legal assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Qatar and its connection to transnational law. The World Cup was controversial due to accusations of corruption, the decision to hold the event in extreme temperatures, the abuse of migrant workers, and the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community. These issues led to a transnational legal struggle, with claims being made against Qatar and FIFA for human rights violations. The article explores the transformative effects of this struggle and the connection between mega-sporting events and human rights issues. It also highlights the lack of scholarly engagement with this topic and aims to provide long-term lessons from the transnational legal struggles surrounding the World Cup. [Extracted from the article]

The practice of bribery to government officials is usually carried out by companies to obtain convenience and/or privileges in international business transactions. This illegal of practice often occurs in developing countries which on the one hand need investors for the benefit of the country's development and on the other hand still have weak law enforcement. Transnational bribery that occurs in Indonesia is due to weak law enforcement and low human resources. For this reason, using a normative legal methodology, this study discusses the urgency and advantages for Indonesia to ratify the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in International Business Transactions. These two legal issues are examined using statutory, conceptual, and case approaches. This study concludes that Indonesia needs to ratify the Convention to provide legal certainty in carrying out the eradication of the cross-border crime of bribery. The ratification effort to the Convention will provide economic and legal advantages to Indonesia that include in strengthening its domestic law. Participation in the Convention will also increase international cooperation in terms of eradicating bribery in cross-border business transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of scandals and growing public pressure, international sport organisations have undertaken a number of governance reforms. A landmark measure has been the implementation of confidential reporting mechanisms to detect and address internal wrongdoings such as bribery, match-fixing, abuse or doping. This paper seeks to understand the performance of such mechanisms, through a multiple case study approach comparing the organisational intentions, the means invested, and the perceived results. Policy reviews and a series of interviews with international sport organisation representatives were conducted. The data analysis generates three main findings: the quest for external legitimacy is a key driver behind the reforms; minimum resources are invested in the processes; the perceived impacts are limited. Sport organisations may adopt formal governance reforms that remain disconnected from the daily practices. Finally, the practical and conceptual implications are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the influence of internal and external beliefs about the attribution of success in life on perceptions of corruption and corrupt behaviour. Using individual-level data from the Life in Transition Survey III for 21 former communist European countries, the results show that, on the one hand, beliefs that success in life is achieved eminently through effort and hard work and through intelligence, skills and competences reduce both the likelihood of perceiving corruption and acting corruptly. On the other hand, external attributes of life success achieved through political connections and breaking the law are associated with higher perceptions of corruption and bribery-related behaviour. These findings highlight the significant positive role of personal effort (rather than any help from unfair sources) and meritocracy in achieving success in life on the assessment of perceptions of corruption and corrupt behaviour in former communist European societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between professional ethics, independence, and audit expertise on auditor performance in government organizations. The study focuses on the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) as the internal auditing firm. The research findings indicate that all three factors have a significant impact on auditor performance. Professional ethics and independence contribute to higher quality auditing, while audit expertise improves accuracy and effectiveness. The article emphasizes the importance of adhering to ethical standards, maintaining independence, and continuously developing audit skills for optimal performance. [Extracted from the article]

This article introduces the concept of 'coloniality of anti-corruption' to help situate and describe contemporary US anti-corruption policies aimed at Puerto Rico. The aim of the concept of coloniality of anti-corruption is to underscore corruption's inextricable relationship to race, class, gender, and other colonial power relations. The article argues that US interventions with the Puerto Rican government, along with its distribution of disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane María (2017) and subsequent earthquakes (2020), are best understood against the backdrop of a long history of corruption narrative implemented by the US. This is a narrative that seeks to legitimate US's colonial and capitalist expansion in Puerto Rico. To demonstrate this, the article explores the application of anti-corruption narratives by the Trump administration to justify its disaster relief policies for Puerto Rico. In particular, the article focuses on Trump's tweets describing Puerto Rican politicians as 'corrupt' and Puerto Rico as 'geography of fraud.' In doing so, the article provides a theoretical account of the uses of corruption and anti-corruption discourses to justify colonial and capitalist's global endeavors. It also illustrates how anti-corruption policies reproduce the idea of the non-white other as the corrupt subject and denotes the humanitarian consequences of such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that intermediaries who help citizens and businesses navigate the complexities of government regulatory procedures can also facilitate bribery. Moreover, it has been argued that traditional methods of detecting bribery may be ineffective in the presence of intermediaries. This paper investigates whether asymmetric punishment (viz., punishing bribe taking, but not giving) can reduce bribery when both intermediated as well direct corruption are possible and the complexity of the regulatory process is endogenous. We show that if asymmetric punishment can induce whistle blowing, then a switch from symmetric to asymmetric punishment can result in fewer bribery transactions, a reduction in regulatory complexity, and an increase in clients' gain from regulatory approvals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Transylvanian Sabbatarians represented one of the most radical form of the Reformation whose only retained doctrinal link to Christianity was belief in Jesus. By the mid-nineteenth century, even this last doctrine dropped out of their faith and they officially converted to Judaism, thus founding the only proselyte congregation in contemporary Europe. They were immediately suspected of having ulterior motives for their conversion, and in the twentieth century, accusations proliferated of deliberate Jewish proselytizing and bribery. Here, we go back to the beginnings and search the Sabbatarians' earliest texts for the original, theological grounds that they themselves asserted. The working hypothesis is that analysis of this key article of faith, belief in Jesus, is sufficient to mark out the later course of the Sabbatarians' theological development. The interpretation of the messianic mission and tasks clearly indicates which side the Sabbatarians would lean to in the course of their several centuries of balancing between Christianity and Judaism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the possibility of having a very low rate of unemployment in Nigeria, if there is a reduced rate of corruption in the long‐term. While using cointegration regressions and Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) over the period 1996–2020, it is affirmed that corruption could increase unemployment rate in the long run. The two corruption indicators employed (control of corruption and corruption index) are found to have a substantial effect on unemployment rate. Further evidence confirms that corruption and unemployment are cyclically interdependent. Findings indeed stress that a high level of corruption is harmful to employment growth. On the other hand, in the absence of sufficient job opportunities, rent‐seeking government officials would be more interested in collecting bribes from job seekers, which results in sustained unlawful practices among the public officials. Thus, adopting effective corruption‐control measures is critical. It is therefore suggested that to effectively tackle corruption incidents, there should be incentives for citizens or public officials to report bribery and the process of reporting corruption incidents should be further simplified. Strengthening anti‐corruption agencies and developing a sound legal framework that promotes a culture of lawfulness and impeccable practices in the public sector are central. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interrogates street traders' encounters with the bribery and extortion by task force officials in Lagos State, Nigeria, using a mixed method of social research survey, in-depth interview and observation. The study found that poverty (p = 0.000), gender (p = 0.001), location (p = 0.009), employment status (p = 0.003), family pressure (p = 0.008) and payment of remittance (p = 0.000) are significant predictors of willingness to bribe task force officials (p < 0.001). It also established that traders, who perceived the street trading law of Lagos as a deterrent law, tended to bribe task force officials in order to escape justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manipulation of football match scores in Indonesia is familiar and continues to increase. The settlement of the case in the judge's decision was based on two criminal acts, namely the crime of fraud (Article 378 of the Criminal Code) and bribery (UU No. 11 of 1980). It is stated in several judge's decisions, including in Judge's Decision No.31/Pid.Sus/2020/PN.Smd and Judge's Decision No.48/Pid.Sus/2019/PN BNR. Manipulation of match scores as an attempt to violate the goals of the sport of football. This research aims to verify cases of match score manipulation by referees in realizing sports goals. The results of the discussion prove that the two judges' decisions that classify match score manipulation In the two judges' decisions that classify match score manipulation cases as fraud and bribery, there is the fulfillment of the elements in both of these crimes. In contrast, the subject of the violation is the referee who leads the match, which requires Integrity and leadership character. Then the goal of a soccer match is to support the embodiment of the formation of national values and character. Then when a referee is involved in a match score manipulation case, it means he has generally failed the goals of the sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, abundant research on corruption has established its negative impact on human well-being. Indeed, general scholarship finds that it is appropriately shunned across contexts, with citizens in different cultures and contexts expressing a general aversion to corruption. However, what is less explored is whether different types of corruption are tolerated differently. To address this question, we explore citizen attitudes towards different types of corruption in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania, and Spain. Participants were presented with vignettes describing different corrupt scenarios--specifically, traffic bribery, nepotism, state capture, patronage, embezzlement, clientelism, conflict of interest, and quid pro quo--and asked to score each one on an 11-point Likert scale. We used a neutral narrative in the vignettes to minimize the bias that may be introduced through the wording. Our results suggest different types of corruption are tolerated differently. Specifically, tolerance of corruption (1) varies across types of corruption, with embezzlement and patronage being, on average, the least and most tolerated types of corruption, respectively; (2) varies across countries, with respondents from Indonesia and Spain being, on average, the most and least tolerant, and (3) varies across countries for the same type of corruption, with respondents expressing more consensus about their disapproval of embezzlement compared to that of clientelism, nepotism, or conflict of interest. The study finds several statistically significant differences in tolerance of corruption across countries and scenarios, reflecting the versatility of corruption and the importance of specification and contextualization when devising public anti- corruption initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does unethical behavior of employees manifest in organizations? We answer this question using strain, interest, and ethnos oblige theories in four studies based on data from Ghana and Botswana. We find support across the three theoretical perspectives of a mediated model where strain, interest, and obligation influence unethical behavior via affect and strategies. We also conducted robustness checks using bribery and corruption criterions which support the findings and show more robust effects with ethnos oblige theory than strain and interest theories. We make novel theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions by providing a parsimonious explanation for why employees engage in unethical behavior in Africa. Overall, our studies extend the unethical behavior literature by proposing an integrative model that recognizes the syncretic experiences of employees in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising incidence of credit defaults may cause credit crunch. This affects the ability of firms to finance working capital and also fixed capital formation. Naturally, this is a major macroeconomic shock. This paper is an attempt to address the microeconomic foundation of such macroeconomic shock. We provide a theoretical framework to explain the economic rationale behind 'wilful corporate defaults' and 'financial corruption' in the specific context of trade liberalization. First, we model the behavioural aspects of wilful corporate defaulters and bank officials to determine the bank bribe rate as an outcome of the Nash bargaining process in a two‐stage sequential move game. Based on the results of the partial equilibrium framework, we examine aspects of trade liberalization in an otherwise 2 × 2 general equilibrium framework. We also compare the efficacy of punishment strategies to economic incentives to deter credit defaults and banking sector corruption. Methodologically, our analytical model integrates finance capital distinctly from physical capital in Jonesian general equilibrium framework. Interestingly, our findings indicate that there exists a trade‐off at equilibrium between curbing credit defaults and bribery. We also find that not all punishment strategies are equally effective at deterring credit defaults if general equilibrium interlinkage effects are carefully dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we conduct an empirical analysis to examine whether police officers are disciplined more severely than other government officers. We used data on disciplinary actions in cases of bribery, which had been extracted from the casebook on disciplinary appeals reviews (2004–2018) published by the Appeals Commission of the Republic of Korea. The results of the ordinal logistic regression for the entire period (2004–2018) show that disciplinary actions imposed by the police agency were more severe than other government agencies. However, in a period-separated analysis of police disciplinary rationalisation policies in 2011, the differences in the level of disciplinary actions between the police and other agencies were only significant in the former period (2004–2011). The difference was not significant in the latter (2012–2018). This implies that the police agency imposed more severe disciplinary actions than other government agencies in the past. However, the latter period analysis implies that the disciplinary tendency of the police changed due to the effectiveness of the disciplinary rationalisation policy of the South Korean police agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practices labelled as corrupt in nineteenth-century European elections are generally conceived either as a form of domination where the candidates and their agents use exclusive resources for personal gain or a means of transaction between candidates and voters, on the assumption that candidates deploy corrupt practices in order to perusade voters. Consequently, electoral corruption in the nineteenth century is considered a tool that limits the participation of enfranchised citizens, whose conception of corruption is largely uncultivated. This study challenges this notion and demonstrates how corrupt practices by electors in societies where freedom was not guaranteed, did not restrain but instead extended the possibilities of political participation. The novelty of this study is based on integrating research focused on politicization beyond the elite and the new history of corruption, using Great Britain, France, and Spain as case studies. This integrated process found that corruption was used by electors to overturn unfavourable results, thus providing a platform for participation beyond voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on retailers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and examine the possible change in the level of corruption after the 2008-2009 Global Crisis. We focus on three events: securing government contracts, applications for an operating license, and applications for an importing license by retailers in the region. We find that fewer retailers secured or attempted to secure a government contract after the crisis ended. This may be due to overall economic activities going down during this period. We also find bribes got smaller after the crisis ended, which was a positive change. Our results show that there was no significant change in the percentage of retailers applying for an import license or the percentage that paid bribes after the crisis ended. The number of days needed to get this license went down, which was a positive change. Our results show that applications by retailers to get an operating license went down, which might also be due to overall activities going down. The percentage that paid bribes to get an operating license got smaller, which was a positive change. On the other hand, the number of days needed to get an operating license went up, which was a negative change. Overall, we can conclude that there were some positive changes in terms of corruption facing retailers in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Strategic Universe Journal / Univers Strategic is the property of Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Institute for Security Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We consider a game of petty corruption between entrepreneurs and multiple bureaucrats. The potential value of the entrepreneur's project is stochastic and private, and it can be realized only if the project is approved by all the bureaucrats. The bureaucrats simultaneously make take-it-or-leave-it demands of bribes in exchange for approving the project. The entrepreneur can either pay the required bribes or seek costly legal recourse against non-approval. The paper shows that there are multiple equilibria in the one-shot game as well as in the dynamic version of the game in which a sequence of entrepreneurs applies to the set of bureaucrats to seek project approvals. We then characterize a compelling class of equilibria, namely the bribe-income-maximizing-equilibrium, and show that total bribe exchanged under such equilibria is non-monotonic in the cost of legal recourse. Hence, a small/incremental reduction to the cost of appeal is either ineffective or can backfire, i.e. increase the amount of corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal Law & Political Sciences (Arabic Version) is the property of Journal of Law & Political Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of corruption. The main purpose of the research is to examine the impact of global economic/financial crisis on corruption. We focus on manufacturing firms in the EECA region and examine their activities including bidding for government contracts, applying for an operating license, and applying for an import license. Systematization of the literary sources and approaches for solving the problem indicates that bribes got significantly smaller after the crisis ended. The relevance of this scientific problem decision is that governments' efforts to improve the overall business environment when facing an economic/financial crisis help reduce corruption. Investigation of corruption in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence: First, the size of bribes for securing government contracts is examined. Then, the prevalence of bribery during import license application process is examined. Finally, the prevalence of bribery during operating license application process is examined. Methodological tools of the research methods were non-parametric tests that compare the years of 2007 and 2010-2014. The research object is manufacturing firms in the EECA region because they were included in the BEEPS IV and BEEPS V manufacturing surveys. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that governments' actions during an economic or financial crisis affect the size and prevalence of bribery. The research results can be useful for government officials that plan on reducing corruption in their region or country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article unravels the destructive practice of bribery, which is ingrained in South African culture. Through the scenarios in the public transport industry and literature review, the article reveals that indeed bribery is a reality to reckon with. It is observed in all tiers of society such as politics, businesses and religious circles. Bribery explained as a ‘brown envelope syndrome’ is rife in the South African socio-political landscape. The objective of this article is to enlighten the readers that bribery from socio-theological perspectives is ethically unacceptable. It promotes corrupt political accountability, economic inequality, social disrespect and religious hypocrisy. The article starts with personal scenarios and then delves into the definition of bribery as payment in a form of money, favours or gifts, to influence a decision, to receive favours in turn, facilitate fast delivery of goods, gain an unfair advantage, avoid legal prosecution or to supply substandard products or services. The second part of the artilce discusses how bribery clashes with Christian ethics as pointed by Jesus in Mark 7:21–22, as bribery lies buried in human hearts and manifests itself in different sins. There is a clear biblical condemnation of bribery as detestable, and that by all means possible, it should be proscribed. Bribery in political circles is known as ‘brown envelope’, which means the currency exchanges between the corrupt and the corrupted. Solutions suggested is that citizens in their national democracies should break out of the shell and become vocal against bribery. The church should emerge behind the trees and come up with prophetic discernment, wisdom and be vocal against bribery. Personally, those exposed to bribery situations must maintain wisdom and learn how to refuse offers without endangering themselves. This research unravels bribery and its devastating effects of promoting corrupt political accountability, economic inequality, social disrespect and religious hypocrisy. Contribution: This article calls for communities and churches to be vocal against bribery and encourages personal accountability when confronted with bribery offers.

The purpose of this research is to analyze corporate bribery in international business through a case study, in particular, a series of enforcement actions carried out in compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of the United States between 2011 and 2022. For this purpose, an exploratory research approach was followed, focused on answering the following questions: What motivates the offering of bribes around obtaining and maintaining business in international business? What relevant distinctions can be made to better understand this phenomenon? Based on the results of the case studies, a series of categories are proposed, the analysis of which may help to promote the private sector's capacity to prevent this illicit activity by facilitating the identification of risky activities or processes and possible mechanisms for their control.

In recent years, researchers have paid close attention to educational corruption. While numerous studies have investigated various forms of corruption in education, there has been a dearth of research that spans a wide range of countries and educational levels. Based on the findings of the previous decade, this study attempted to fill this research gap by undertaking a systematic review of various forms of corruption in education across countries and educational levels. Using a systematic literature review technique, this study assessed the prevalence of various forms of corruption in education, with a focus on bribery as the most commonly reported form across coutries. Furthermore, it showed that higher education institutions gained greater research focus regarding corruption and exhibited a diverse variety of corrupt activities compared to primary and secondary education. This review emphasised the significance of future research on corruption in elementary and secondary education, particularly on types of corruption other than bribery and mutually beneficial connections. This study contributed to the existing literature by enhancing our understanding of the many types of corruption in education and their prevalence across countries and educational levels. It also provided policymakers and educators with insights into how to establish effective tactics for eliminating corruption in education systems.