Institutions and Consistent Corruption

Abstract

Original Institutional Economics (OIE), and other non-mainstream economics paradigms, tend to look holistically at socioeconomic behavior.  From the OIE perspective, a society’s institutions, the implicit and explicit rules governing behaviors, are expected to shape individual and social behavior. Broadly defined, corrupt behavior can be found anywhere, at any time, but evidence suggests that, in some countries, corrupt behavior is more ubiquitous than in others indicating that corruption has become institutionalized.  This paper analyzes two groups of countries: one group in which the level of corruption has been consistently perceived to be low and another in which the level of corruption has been consistently perceived to be high. Several social/institutional indicators are examined to see which, if any, institutional characteristics vary across the two groups. The research is exploratory and its purpose is to gain insight into social/institutional conditions that may discourage or encourage consistent corruption.