Executive Influence over Reported Corruption Convictions: Are Conviction Rates a Biased Measure of US State-Level Corruption?
47 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2015 Last revised: 24 Sep 2017
Date Written: September 24, 2017
Abstract
Using state level data on corruption convictions from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section (PIN) and political importance over five consecutive presidential terms from 1993-2012, I find evidence that reported federal corruption convictions tend to be higher in politically important states. However, this effect decreases in magnitude and becomes statistically insignificant when states have a governor of the same political party as the president. Thus, corruption convictions are systematically different across states based on political factors.
Keywords: Corruption, corruption convictions, congressional dominance model, congressional oversight
JEL Classification: D7, D72, D73
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation