Executive Influence over Reported Corruption Convictions: Are Conviction Rates a Biased Measure of US State-Level Corruption?

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