Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: An Experimental Study of Bribery, Nepotism, and Patronage

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Corruption is one of most cited factors inhibiting economic development. It impedes political and economic growth, reduces the welfare of societies, increases income inequality, and reduces trust in political institutions. Even in the presence of anticorruption policies, the shadow of corruption looms large. The key challenge in anticorruption policy is to create sustainable change. In addition to the change in policy itself, citizens must be convinced of the effectiveness of the policy intervention. This implies altering citizens? beliefs about the level of corruption within governments and bureaucracies. Previous work has suggested that the success of anticorruption policy is highly dependent on underlying culture; the same policies can succeed in one cultural environment but fail in another. If anticorruption policy measures fail, corruption may then be viewed as a problem that cannot be addressed. This makes the trial and error method of anticorruption policy very risky for countries, and highlights an important problem in fighting corruption: policies need to have a high probability of effectiveness before countries will risk implementation, yet there is no venue where they can be tested.In this proposal, the researchers use laboratory experiments to 'testbed' alternative anticorruption policies. They ask how policy interventions change individual behavior in societies where high levels of corruption are prevalent, as compared with societies where corruption is relatively rare. The proposed experiments investigate three different types of corruption (bribery, nepotism, and patronage) and three different policy interventions (sanctions, enhanced civic awareness, and improved transparency), with subjects in two different cultures (the US, where corruption is very low, and Pakistan, where it is widespread). The proposed experiments allow us to investigate the impact of anticorruption policies in each culture without the risks associated with implementation on a societal scale. The goal of the research is to demonstrate how (and when) these policies are likely to be effective in an inexpensive and low-consequence environment. The results will provide guidance for development agencies in formulating policies targeted towards a particular local population.