The Economic Costs of Corruption: A Survey and New Evidence
33 Pages
Posted: 2 Jun 2005
University of Heidelberg
IAMO; Martin Luther Universitat Halle Wittenberg
Date Written: June 2005
Abstract
This paper reviews the empirical literature on the economic costs of corruption. Corruption affects economic growth, the level of GDP per capita, investment activity, international trade and price stability negatively. Additionally, it biases the composition of government expenditures. The second part of the paper estimates the effect of corruption on economic growth and GDP per capita as well as on six possible transmission channels. The results of this analysis allows to calculate the total effect of corruption: An increase of corruption by about one index point reduces GDP growth by 0.13 percentage points and GDP per capita by 425 US$.
Keywords: Costs of corruption, survey, empirical evidence
JEL Classification: O1, K49, C39
Suggested Citation:
Suggested Citation
Dreher, Axel and Herzfeld, Thomas, The Economic Costs of Corruption: A Survey and New Evidence (June 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=734184 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.734184
