The Effects of Education on Corruption: Evidence from Vietnam's University Expansion
58 Pages Posted: 13 Dec 2024
Date Written: October 24, 2024
Abstract
Education and corruption are negatively correlated at the cross-national level, but little is known about the causal relationship between the two. We combine data on Vietnam's expansion of universities in 40 new districts with detailed survey data on experiences of corruption from over 170,000 respondents in 320 districts across 12 years. Using an age cohort difference-indifferences approach, we show that cohorts exposed to the university expansion are 64.8% more likely to have a university degree. However, this increase neither translates into a lower propensity to pay bribes nor an increased propensity to denounce corrupt officials. Instead, we find that education increases the propensity to pay bribes at the individual level. The mechanism for this increase that is most consistent with our data is that education raises household income and higher income leads to more bribe payments.
Keywords: Corruption, Education, Institutions and Development, Government Accountability JEL Codes: D73, H75, I23, I25
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