Kinship, Fractionalization and Corruption
102 Pages
Posted: 6 Oct 2016
Last revised: 1 Jul 2017
Simon Fraser University (SFU)
Simon Fraser University (SFU)
Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy; Simon Fraser University
Date Written: June 30, 2017
Abstract
By shaping patterns of relatedness and interaction, marriage practices influence the relative returns to norms of nepotism/favoritism versus norms of impartial cooperation. In-marriage (e.g. consanguineous marriage) yields a relatively closed society of related individuals and thereby encourages favoritism and corruption. Out-marriage creates a relatively open society with increased interaction between non-relatives and strangers, thereby encouraging impartiality. We report a robust association between in-marriage practices and corruption across countries and across Italian provinces. A stylized corruption experiment comparing subjects from two countries with divergent marriage patterns provides complementary evidence that the degree of impartiality varies with marriage patterns.
Keywords: corruption, fractionalization, institutions, mating patterns, consanguinity, experiments
JEL Classification: D7, D0, C9, J1
Suggested Citation:
Suggested Citation
Akbari, Mahsa and Bahrami-Rad, Duman and Kimbrough, Erik O., Kinship, Fractionalization and Corruption (June 30, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2847222 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2847222
