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The Welfare Effects of Consumers' Reports of Bribery

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  • J. Atsu Amegashie

Abstract

A primary means of bureaucratic oversight is consumer complaints. Yet this important control mechanism has received very little attention in the literature on corruption. I study a signaling game of corruption in which uninformed consumers require a government service from informed officials. A victim of corruption can report corrupt officials whose supervisors are negligent or conscientious but an official's type is his private information. I find that social welfare may be nonmonotonic in the proportion of conscientious supervisors. Several examples show that an increase in the proportion of conscientious supervisors decreases social welfare if the mass of conscientious supervisors is below a critical level. I find that this perverse result does not hold if (a) the bribe is very large, or (b) bribe‐giving is legalized. I also find that there is an equilibrium in which no one reports corruption.

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  • J. Atsu Amegashie, 2016. "The Welfare Effects of Consumers' Reports of Bribery," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 516-534, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:25:y:2016:i:2:p:516-534
    DOI: 10.1111/jems.12149
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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Angelucci & Antonio Russo, 2022. "Petty Corruption And Citizen Reports," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(2), pages 831-848, May.
    2. Dmitriy Knyazev, 2023. "How to fight corruption: Carrots and sticks," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(2), pages 413-429, April.

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