IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v58y2018icp175-191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Commodities and corruption – How the middle class and democratic institutions lead to less corruption in resource-rich countries

Author

Listed:
  • Neudorfer, Natascha S.

Abstract

According to a rent-seeking approach to corruption, resource-rich countries are more vulnerable to rent-seeking behavior than resource-poor countries. However, not all resource-rich countries experience widespread corruption. To help explain this puzzle, I propose that the relationship between natural resources (e.g. the depletion of minerals) and corruption is dependent on the composition of the selectorate (through diverse levels of economic development) and the variation of political systems (democracies vs. autocracies). The large-N empirical analysis finds support for the hypotheses: on average, poor, autocratic, resource-rich countries suffer from more corruption than rich, democratic, resource-rich countries. This research contributes to the discussion of resource curses and blessings by suggesting that a closer inspection of a country's political and economic conditions is required to understand the causal link between natural resource wealth and corruption. Whereas the empirical analysis particularly focuses on the validity of the argument for mineral resource wealth and corruption, the overall theoretical and empirical scope of this paper is intentionally broader in nature: The paper also contributes to our collective research understanding of various forms of resource wealth (i.e. mineral depletion, fuel exports, oil wealth or energy depletion) and corruption.

Suggested Citation

  • Neudorfer, Natascha S., 2018. "Commodities and corruption – How the middle class and democratic institutions lead to less corruption in resource-rich countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 175-191.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:58:y:2018:i:c:p:175-191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420717300570
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.05.003?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. Montinola, Gabriella R. & Jackman, Robert W., 2002. "Sources of Corruption: A Cross-Country Study," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(1), pages 147-170, January.
    2. Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Hodler, Roland, 2010. "Natural resources, democracy and corruption," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 608-621, May.
    3. AlÌcia Adserý, 2003. "Are You Being Served? Political Accountability and Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 445-490, October.
    4. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini & Francesco Trebbi, 2003. "Electoral Rules and Corruption," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 958-989, June.
    5. Tsani, Stella, 2013. "Natural resources, governance and institutional quality: The role of resource funds," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 181-195.
    6. Swamy, Anand & Knack, Stephen & Lee, Young & Azfar, Omar, 2001. "Gender and corruption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 25-55, February.
    7. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    8. Kjell Hausken & Christian W. Martin & Thomas Plümper, 2004. "Government Spending and Taxation in Democracies and Autocracies," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 239-259, September.
    9. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    10. Kolstad, Ivar & Søreide, Tina, 2009. "Corruption in natural resource management: Implications for policy makers," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 214-226, December.
    11. Bulte Erwin & Damania Richard, 2008. "Resources for Sale: Corruption, Democracy and the Natural Resource Curse," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, February.
    12. Treisman, Daniel, 2000. "The causes of corruption: a cross-national study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 399-457, June.
    13. Easterly, William, 2001. "The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 317-335, December.
    14. Plümper, Thomas & Neumayer, Eric, 2009. "Famine Mortality, Rational Political Inactivity, and International Food Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 50-61, January.
    15. Birthe Eriksen & Tina Søreide, 2017. "Zero-tolerance to corruption? Norway’s role in petroleum-related corruption internationally," Chapters, in: Aled Williams & Philippe Le Billon (ed.), Corruption, Natural Resources and Development, chapter 2, pages 28-43, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Longmore, Rohan & Jaupart, Pascal & Cazorla, Marta Riveira, 2014. "Toward economic diversification in Trinidad and Tobago," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6840, The World Bank.
    17. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    18. Danila Serra, 2006. "Empirical determinants of corruption: A sensitivity analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 225-256, January.
    19. Daniel Lederman & Norman V. Loayza & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2005. "Accountability And Corruption: Political Institutions Matter," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17, pages 1-35, March.
    20. Kunicovã , Jana & Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 2005. "Electoral Rules and Constitutional Structures as Constraints on Corruption," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(4), pages 573-606, October.
    21. Bueno De Mesquita, Bruce & Morrow, James D. & Siverson, Randolph M. & Smith, Alastair, 2002. "Political Institutions, Policy Choice and the Survival of Leaders," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(4), pages 559-590, October.
    22. Söderholm, Patrik & Svahn, Nanna, 2015. "Mining, regional development and benefit-sharing in developed countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 78-91.
    23. Macartan Humphreys, 2005. "Natural Resources, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(4), pages 508-537, August.
    24. Stijns, Jean-Philippe C., 2005. "Natural resource abundance and economic growth revisited," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 107-130, June.
    25. Haass, Felix & Ottmann, Martin, 2017. "Profits from Peace: The Political Economy of Power-Sharing and Corruption," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 60-74.
    26. Colgan, Jeff D., 2010. "Oil and Revolutionary Governments: Fuel for International Conflict," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 661-694, October.
    27. Xiaohui Xin & Thomas K. Rudel, 2004. "The Context for Political Corruption: A Cross‐National Analysis," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 85(2), pages 294-309, June.
    28. Plümper, Thomas & Neumayer, Eric, 2006. "The Unequal Burden of War: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 723-754, July.
    29. Indra De Soysa & Eric Neumayer, 2007. "Resource Wealth and the Risk of Civil War Onset: Results from a New Dataset of Natural Resource Rents, 1970—1999," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 24(3), pages 201-218, July.
    30. Petermann, Andrea & Guzman, Juan Ignacio & Tilton, John E., 2007. "Mining and corruption," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 91-103, September.
    31. Keisuke Okada & Sovannroeun Samreth, 2017. "Corruption and natural resource rents: evidence from quantile regression," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(20), pages 1490-1493, November.
    32. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1997. "I Just Ran Two Million Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 178-183, May.
    33. Eric Chang & Miriam A. Golden, 2010. "Sources of Corruption in Authoritarian Regimes," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(1), pages 1-20, March.
    34. Rafael Di Tella & Alberto Ades, 1999. "Rents, Competition, and Corruption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 982-993, September.
    35. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C., 2004. "Political Institutions and Corruption: The Role of Unitarism and Parliamentarism," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(2), pages 295-330, April.
    36. 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.
    37. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C., 2005. "Do Neoliberal Policies Deter Political Corruption?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(1), pages 233-254, January.
    38. Jing Vivian Zhan, 2017. "Do Natural Resources Breed Corruption? Evidence from China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 66(2), pages 237-259, February.
    39. Tsani, Stella, 2015. "On the relationship between resource funds, governance and institutions: Evidence from quantile regression analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 94-111.
    40. Krieckhaus, Jonathan, 2006. "Democracy and Economic Growth: How Regional Context Influences Regime Effects," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 317-340, April.
    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. Mohammad Abdul Munim Joarder & Monir Uddin Ahmed, 2023. "Does natural resource abundance breed corruption? The role of political institutions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(9), pages 1-43, September.
    2. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Kamguia, Brice, 2023. "Natural resources, child mortality and governance quality in African countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Bertrand Venard & Kezang Tshering, 2021. "Barriers to transparency in Bhutan's public administration: A new typology of opacity," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 203-216, October.
    4. Salari, Mahmoud & Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2021. "Natural resources, women and corruption," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Inna Cabelkova, 2021. "Sustainability of State Budgetary Expenses: Tax Compliance of Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Groups—The Evidence from the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Gheorghița Dincă & Marius Sorin Dincă & Camelia Negri & Mihaela Bărbuță, 2021. "The Impact of Corruption and Rent-Seeking Behavior upon Economic Wealth in the European Union from a Public Choice Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-23, June.

    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. Blaise Gnimassoun, Joseph Keneck Massil, 2019. "Determinants of corruption: can we put all countries in the same basket?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 16(2), pages 239-276, December.
    2. Blaise Gnimassoun & Joseph Keneck Massil, 2016. "Determinants of corruption: Can we put all countries in the same basket?," Working Papers hal-04141599, HAL.
    3. Gans-Morse, Jordan & Borges, Mariana & Makarin, Alexey & Mannah-Blankson, Theresa & Nickow, Andre & Zhang, Dong, 2018. "Reducing bureaucratic corruption: Interdisciplinary perspectives on what works," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 171-188.
    4. Laarni Escresa & Lucio Picci, 2020. "The determinants of cross-border corruption," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 351-378, September.
    5. Łukasz Goczek, 2007. "Przyczyny korupcji i skuteczność strategii antykorupcyjnych," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 4, pages 33-48.
    6. Mohammad Abdul Munim Joarder & Monir Uddin Ahmed, 2023. "Does natural resource abundance breed corruption? The role of political institutions," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(9), pages 1-43, September.
    7. Graf Lambsdorff, Johann, 2005. "Consequences and causes of corruption: What do we know from a cross-section of countries?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe V-34-05, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    8. 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.
    9. Joshua D. Potter & Margit Tavits, 2011. "Curbing Corruption with Political Institutions," Chapters, in: Susan Rose-Ackerman & Tina Søreide (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, Volume Two, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Freille, Sebastian & Haque, M. Emranul & Kneller, Richard, 2007. "A contribution to the empirics of press freedom and corruption," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 838-862, December.
    11. Kotera, Go & Okada, Keisuke & Samreth, Sovannroeun, 2012. "Government size, democracy, and corruption: An empirical investigation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2340-2348.
    12. repec:pdn:wpaper:79 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Ruba A. Aljarallah & Andrew Angus, 2020. "Dilemma of Natural Resource Abundance: A Case Study of Kuwait," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440198, January.
    14. Krisztina Kis-Katos & Günther G. Schulze, 2013. "Corruption in Southeast Asia: a survey of recent research," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 27(1), pages 79-109, May.
    15. repec:pdn:wpaper:70 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Pieroni, L. & d'Agostino, G., 2013. "Corruption and the effects of economic freedom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 54-72.
    17. Michael A. Nelson, 2013. "Corruption and the size of local governments: are they related?," Chapters, in: Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Challenge of Local Government Size, chapter 4, pages 83-120, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Roberto Dell’Anno, 2020. "Corruption around the world: an analysis by partial least squares—structural equation modeling," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 327-350, September.
    19. Judge, William Q. & McNatt, D. Brian & Xu, Weichu, 2011. "The antecedents and effects of national corruption: A meta-analysis," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 93-103, January.
    20. Aidt, T. & Dutta, J. & Vania Sena, 2005. "Growth, Governance and Corruption in the Presence of Threshold Effects: Theory and Evidence," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0540, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    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:jrpoli:v:58:y:2018:i:c:p:175-191. 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/inca/30467 .

    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.