Corruption, Globalization and the Outbreak of COVID-19

Abstract

The current health crisis affects countries around the world in different ways and its economic and social consequences are considerable. One of the policy recommendations of international organizations and civil societies emphasize anti-corruption measures as part of the response to combat the outbreak. Such a proposal is consistent with the observed cases of corruption during the pandemics and the well-known adverse consequences of corruption, notably in the health systems. Notwithstanding,this proposal lacks empirical support. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, the very limited empirical studies on the COVID-19 issue test mainly the extent to which globalization is a driving factor in the spread of the outbreak, after controlling for macroeconomic factors or health systems quality.

Thus, the present study intends to fill this double gap. I empirically test whether corruption affects the spread of COVID-19 and induces subsequent mortality. Based on a sample of more than 100 countries, we confirm our expectations: the more corrupt countries are, the greater the confirmed cases of infections and the number of deaths. These findings are robust to the control of several variables, the use of several econometric methods, and indicators of corruption.

Keywords: Corruption, COVID-19, globalization, health

JEL Classification: H10; F02; F50