Collaborative: Tax evasion and Corruption across the world: Are firms victims or perpetrators?

腐败在各种经济中都是一个重要的问题，但却没有得到很好的理解。它会降低交易中的信任和可预测性，并可能改变财富和机会的分配。大多数腐败研究将国家视为整体，而不关注各国特定行业和个别公司的腐败。此外，大多数人认为腐败只会产生负面影响。在这项研究中，将使用一个独特而全面的数据库来研究76个国家公司的非法活动，重点关注公共和私营部门的小型创新公司。该项目使用的框架和数据使研究小组能够解决新的问题，包括腐败和逃税可能产生的积极影响。例如，研究人员将探讨：腐败是否构成对创新的征税；行贿的公司是否在处理官僚主义和监管方面获得特殊优势；某些行业是否有行贿和逃税的倾向？以及哪些因素解释了企业作为受害者和加害者在国家内部和国家之间的分布。研究结果应该对制定反腐败战略和为改进税收征管的战略提供信息方面的政策改革产生直接影响。

Corruption is an important, and not well understood, problem in economies of all sorts. It can degrade trust and predictability in transactions and may alter distributions of wealth and opportunity. Most corruption studies treat countries as monoliths without attention to corruption in specific industries and individual firms across countries. Also, most assume corruption has only negative effects. In this study, a unique and comprehensive database will be used to study the illegal activities of firms across 76 countries, focusing on small innovative firms in both the public and private sectors. The framework and the data used in this project enable the research team to address new questions, including questions about possible positive effects of corruption and tax evasion. The researchers will explore, for example: whether corruption constitutes a tax on innovation; whether firms that bribe receive special advantages in dealing with bureaucracy and regulation; whether certain industries have a proclivity towards bribe payments and tax evasion?; and what factors explain the distribution of firms as victims and perpetrators within and across countries. The findings should have direct implications for policy reform in designing anti-corruption strategies and in informing strategies to improve tax collection and administration.