Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Essays on corruption in sub-Saharan Africa

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Quina, Joana Gentil (2008) Essays on corruption in sub-Saharan Africa. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP_THESIS_Quina_2008.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (24Mb)
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2241812~S9

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

We study three topics on corruption that are of particular relevance to sub-Saharan Africa.
Firstly, we address the question of why corruption is such an endemic problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Is it policy driven or "destiny"? We analyse indices of perceived corruption and test several theories regarding the causes of corruption. We find strong support for two arguments: Countries with a British heritage are perceived to be less corrupt, while those with a common law system are perceived to be more corrupt. We find weaker support for four further arguments: Countries with good quality institutions and a greater proportion of women in the labour force are perceived as less corrupt. Countries with greater natural resource abundance and with greater trade openness are perceived to be more corrupt.
Secondly, we look at the supply side of bribery. Within the public procurement process, we study how a firm's uncertainty regarding the official's corruptibility and rival firms' costs influences the magnitude of the bribe it offers. Due to the illegal nature of bribery, we also explicitly consider different punishment mechanisms for corrupt firms. We find that secrecy leads to lower bribe levels, and that bribery can be completely deterred by either appropriate fixed fines or by firms being fined punitive damages.
Thirdly, we investigate whether more corrupt governments receive less aid. We develop a theoretical framework that treats corruption as a tax on aid. Although we are unable to empirically test this model, we use it to motivate our empirical analysis of aid receipts using data on sub-Saharan Africa. We find a negative correlation between a country's perceived level of corruption and its aid receipts. However, we find no causal effect of perceived corruption on aid receipts. We revisit the results of an influential paper in the literature and find that their result of no evidence that countries perceived as more corrupt receive less aid is not robust to a sample of sub-Saharan African countries, although we find no evidence of a causal effect. We find no evidence that the impact of perceived corruption on aid receipts differs across sectors.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
D History General and Old World > DT Africa
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Corruption -- Africa, Sub-Saharan, Bribery -- Africa, Sub-Saharan, Economic assistance -- Africa, Sub-Saharan, Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Politics and government, Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Economic conditions
Official Date: April 2008
Dates:
DateEvent
April 2008Submitted
Institution: University of Warwick
Theses Department: Department of Economics
Thesis Type: PhD
Publication Status: Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: Perroni, Carlo ; Walker, Ian, 1954-
Sponsors: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) ; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG)
Format of File: pdf
Extent: 378 leaves : charts
Language: eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us