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Corruption in Russia

Description of the project:
Corruption, defined as a misuse of public office for private gain, remains a major problem for the economic development of many countries. Its negative effect is especially remarkable across developing countries in post-soviet transition and has directly contributed to the economic failure despite the adoption of good economic policies. While corruption research has produced clear results on the consequences of corruption, the causes of corruption and, consequently, the ways how to fight it, remain much less well understood. This project investigates the causes of corruption on the example of the biggest post-communistic country – Russia. We use original law-enforcement data over 9 years across 79 regions and find a strong causal relationship between the salary of public officials and corruption: Corruption declines as relative salaries rise up to a turning point, beyond which corruption rises again. This novel finding has a significant effect and is robust to various specifications of corruption measures or alternative salaries. We also find a connection between freedom of press, education, oil rents, unemployment, and law-enforcement budgetary spending as main determinants of corruption.

contact person: Prof. Dr. Günther Schulze
Phone: 0761 203-2342
Email: guenther.schulze@vwl.uni-freiburg.de
Runtime:
Start of project: 01.01.2013
End of project: 01.02.2015
Project Management:
Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
Schulze G
Abteilung für Internationale Wirtschaftspolitik
am Institut für Allgemeine Wirtschaftsforschung
Platz der Alten Synagoge
79085 Freiburg i. Br.
Germany

Phone: 0761-203 2342
Fax: 0761-203 2414
Email: judith.mueller@vwl.uni-freiburg.de
http://www.vwl.uni-freiburg.de/iwipol/sopo.htm
Actual Research Report

Contributors:
  • Schulze G
  • Sjahrir Putra B
  • Zakharov N
Keywords:
    corruption, corruption and public officials' wages, Russia
project-related publications: