IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v115y2012i1p104-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequality, corruption and the informal sector

Author

Listed:
  • Dobson, Stephen
  • Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn

Abstract

The marginal impact of corruption on income inequality is shown to be a linear function of the size of the informal sector. This implies that anti-corruption policies alone are unlikely to reduce inequality in countries with a large informal sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2012. "Inequality, corruption and the informal sector," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 104-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:115:y:2012:i:1:p:104-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2011.11.034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517651100499X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2011.11.034?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Albanesi, Stefania, 2007. "Inflation and inequality," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1088-1114, May.
    2. Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2010. "Is there a trade-off between income inequality and corruption? Evidence from Latin America," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 102-104, May.
    3. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413.
    4. Antonio Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, 2011. "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 959-976.
    5. Axel Dreher & Christos Kotsogiannis & Steve McCorriston, 2009. "How do institutions affect corruption and the shadow economy?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(6), pages 773-796, December.
    6. Schneider, Friedrich G. & Buehn, Andreas, 2009. "Shadow economies and corruption all over the world: revised estimates for 120 countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 1, pages 1-53.
    7. Schneider, Friedrich G., 2007. "Shadow Economies and Corruption All Over the World: New Estimates for 145 Countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 1, pages 1-66.
    8. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong & Samaria de Gyimah-Brempong, 2006. "Corruption, Growth, and Income Distribution: Are there Regional Differences?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 245-269, August.
    9. Ulyssea, Gabriel, 2010. "Regulation of entry, labor market institutions and the informal sector," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 87-99, January.
    10. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-82, January.
    11. Sanjeev Gupta & Hamid Davoodi & Rosa Alonso-Terme, 2002. "Does corruption affect income inequality and poverty?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 23-45, March.
    12. Jay Pil Choi & Marcel Thum, 2005. "Corruption And The Shadow Economy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(3), pages 817-836, August.
    13. World Bank, 2010. "World Development Indicators 2010," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4373, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cuesta, Lizeth & Ruiz, Yomara, 2021. "Efecto de la globalización sobre la desigualdad. Un estudio global para 104 países usando regresiones cuantílicas [Effect of globalization on inequality. A global study for 104 countries using quan," MPRA Paper 111022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Sugata Marjit & Suryaprakash Mishra, 2021. "Optimum Size of the Informal Credit Market - A Political Economy Perspective," CESifo Working Paper Series 9252, CESifo.
    3. Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu & Tamara Maria Nae & Margareta-Stela Florescu, 2022. "Exploring the Moderation and Mediation Effects in Addressing the Main Determinants of Income Inequalities in Supporting Quality of Life: Insights from CEE Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-28, July.
    4. Jude Kenechi Onyima & Nkechi Cordelia Ojiagu, 2017. "Digital Technology and Formalization of informal Businesses: A case of African Traditional Spiritualists," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(11), pages 599-609, November.
    5. Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris, 2016. "Casting a Long Shadow? Cross-border Spillovers of Shadow Economy across American States," Public Finance Review, , vol. 44(5), pages 610-634, September.
    6. Ajit Mishra, 2022. "What Sustains Informality? A Study of the Interactions between Formal and Informal Sector Firms," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(7), pages 1403-1415, July.
    7. Saha, Shrabani & Beladi, Hamid & Kar, Saibal, 2021. "Corruption control, shadow economy and income inequality: Evidence from Asia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).
    8. Andreas Buehn & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2013. "Impact of education on the shadow economy: Institutions matter," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 2052-2063.
    9. Garcia-Murillo, Martha & Velez-Ospina, Jorge Andres, 2014. "The impact of ICTs on the informal economy," 20th ITS Biennial Conference, Rio de Janeiro 2014: The Net and the Internet - Emerging Markets and Policies 106841, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2012. "Why is Corruption Less Harmful to Income Inequality in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1534-1545.
    2. Eugen Dimant & Guglielmo Tosato, 2018. "Causes And Effects Of Corruption: What Has Past Decade'S Empirical Research Taught Us? A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 335-356, April.
    3. Kar, Saibal & Saha, Shrabani, 2012. "Corruption, Shadow Economy and Income Inequality: Evidence from Asia," IZA Discussion Papers 7106, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Rajeev Goel & James Saunoris, 2014. "Global corruption and the shadow economy: spatial aspects," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 119-139, October.
    5. Bologna, Jamie, 2016. "The effect of informal employment and corruption on income levels in Brazil," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 657-695.
    6. Saha, Shrabani & Beladi, Hamid & Kar, Saibal, 2021. "Corruption control, shadow economy and income inequality: Evidence from Asia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).
    7. Berggren, Niclas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2020. "Corruption, judicial accountability and inequality: Unfair procedures may benefit the worst-off," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 341-354.
    8. Jamie Bologna, 2014. "The Effect of Informal Employment and Corruption on Income Levels in Brazil," Working Papers 14-26, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    9. Schwuchow, Soeren, 2018. "Extractive Institutions, Choking Taxes, and War: On the (Beneficial) Impact of Inequality in Autocracies," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181530, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Sher Khan, 2022. "Investigating the Effect of Income Inequality on Corruption: New Evidence from 23 Emerging Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 2100-2126, September.
    11. Mazhar, Ummad & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2017. "Taxing the unobservable: The impact of the shadow economy on inflation and taxation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 89-103.
    12. Friedrich Schneider (ed.), 2011. "Handbook on the Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13432.
    13. Benno Torgler & Friedrich Schneider & Alison Macintyre, 2011. "Shadow Economy, Voice and Accountability, and Corruption," Chapters, in: Friedrich Schneider (ed.), Handbook on the Shadow Economy, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Alexander Libman & Anastassia Obydenkova, 2019. "Inequality and historical legacies: evidence from post-communist regions," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 699-724, November.
    15. Sulemana, Iddisah & Kpienbaareh, Daniel, 2018. "An empirical examination of the relationship between income inequality and corruption in Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 27-42.
    16. Antonio Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, 2011. "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 959-976.
    17. Schneider Friedrich & Buehn Andreas, 2017. "Shadow Economy: Estimation Methods, Problems, Results and Open questions," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-29, March.
    18. D’Hernoncourt, Johanna & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2012. "The not so dark side of trust: Does trust increase the size of the shadow economy?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 97-121.
    19. Roberto Dell’Anno & Désirée Teobaldelli, 2015. "Keeping both corruption and the shadow economy in check: the role of decentralization," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(1), pages 1-40, February.
    20. Feige, Edgar L., 2015. "Reflections on the meaning and measurement of Unobserved Economies: What do we really know about the “Shadow Economy”?," MPRA Paper 68466, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corruption; Income inequality; Informal sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:115:y:2012:i:1:p:104-107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.