IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v24y2017i4p258-263.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who gets caught for corruption when corruption is pervasive? Evidence from China’s anti-bribery blacklist

Author

Listed:
  • Liming Zhou
  • Zhangfeng Jin
  • Zheng Wang

Abstract

This article empirically investigates why in a corruption-pervasive country only a minority of the firms get caught for bribery while the majority get away with it. By matching manufacturing firms to a blacklist of bribers in the healthcare sector of a province in China, we show that the government-led blacklisting is selective: while economically more visible firms are slightly more likely to be blacklisted, state-controlled firms are the most protected compared to their private and foreign competitors. Our finding points to the fact that a government can use regulations to impose its preferences when the rule of law is weak and the rule of government is strong.

Suggested Citation

  • Liming Zhou & Zhangfeng Jin & Zheng Wang, 2017. "Who gets caught for corruption when corruption is pervasive? Evidence from China’s anti-bribery blacklist," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 258-263, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:24:y:2017:i:4:p:258-263
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2016.1181826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13504851.2016.1181826
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504851.2016.1181826?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. Jakob Svensson, 2003. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much? Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 207-230.
    2. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    3. Chen, Ye & Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Relative performance evaluation and the turnover of provincial leaders in China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 421-425, September.
    4. Jin, Hehui & Qian, Yingyi & Weingast, Barry R., 2005. "Regional decentralization and fiscal incentives: Federalism, Chinese style," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1719-1742, September.
    5. Sequeira, Sandra & Djankov, Simeon, 2014. "Corruption and firm behavior: Evidence from African ports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 277-294.
    6. Michael Song, 2014. "Crony Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics," 2014 Meeting Papers 1145, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    8. John Rand & Finn Tarp, 2012. "Firm-Level Corruption in Vietnam," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(3), pages 571-595.
    9. Cai, Hongbin & Treisman, Daniel, 2004. "State corroding federalism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 819-843, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Eberhardt, Markus & Wang, Zheng & Yu, Zhihong, 2016. "From one to many central plans: Drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 608-622.
    2. Emmanuelle Lavallée & François Roubaud, 2019. "Corruption in the Informal Sector: Evidence from West Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1067-1080, June.
    3. Markevich, Andrei & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2011. "M-form hierarchy with poorly-diversified divisions: A case of Khrushchev's reform in Soviet Russia," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1550-1560.
    4. An, Heng & Chen, Yanyan & Luo, Danglun & Zhang, Ting, 2016. "Political uncertainty and corporate investment: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 174-189.
    5. Markus Eberhardt & Zheng Wang & Zhihong Yu, 2013. "Intra-National Protectionism in China: Evidence from the Public Disclosure of ‘Illegal’ Drug Advertising," CSAE Working Paper Series 2013-07, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    6. Li, Lixing, 2011. "The incentive role of creating "cities" in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 172-181, March.
    7. Barbara Krug & Alexander Libman, 2015. "Commitment to local autonomy in non-democracies: Russia and China compared," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 221-245, June.
    8. Longjin Chen & Jian Huang & Jianjun Li, 2017. "Fiscal Decentralization, Satisfaction with Social Services, and Inequality Under the Hukou System," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 377-394, May.
    9. Axel Demenet & Hoang-Anh Ho & Sarah Morcillo, 2017. "Firm-level corruption: Unravelling sand from grease," WIDER Working Paper Series 123, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Cull, Robert & Xu, Lixin Colin & Yang, Xi & Zhou, Li-An & Zhu, Tian, 2017. "Market facilitation by local government and firm efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 460-480.
    11. Wang, Li & Menkhoff, Lukas & Schröder, Michael & Xu, Xian, 2019. "Politicians’ promotion incentives and bank risk exposure in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 63-94.
    12. Couttenier, Mathieu & Toubal, Farid, 2017. "Corruption for sales," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 56-66.
    13. Cai, Weixing & Hu, Feng & Xu, Fangming & Zheng, Liyi, 2022. "Anti-corruption campaign and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    14. Luo, Kun & Lim, Edwin KiaYang & Qu, Wen & Zhang, Xuan, 2021. "Board cultural diversity, government intervention and corporate innovation effectiveness: Evidence from China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    15. Zhi Wang & Miao Yu, 2022. "Political embeddedness and firms' growth," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 127-153, February.
    16. Conor M. O'Toole & Finn Tarp, 2014. "Corruption And The Efficiency Of Capital Investment In Developing Countries," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(5), pages 567-597, July.
    17. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Shen, Lin, 2018. "Corruption and Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 13218, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Colonnelli, Emanuele & Lagaras, Spyridon & Ponticelli, Jacopo & Prem, Mounu & Tsoutsoura, Margarita, 2022. "Revealing corruption: Firm and worker level evidence from Brazil," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1097-1119.
    19. Che, Jiahua & Chung, Kim-Sau & Lu, Yang K., 2017. "Decentralization and political career concerns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 201-210.
    20. Yu, Jihai & Zhou, Li-An & Zhu, Guozhong, 2016. "Strategic interaction in political competition: Evidence from spatial effects across Chinese cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 23-37.

    More about this item

    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:taf:apeclt:v:24:y:2017:i:4:p:258-263. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    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.