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The Consequences of Corruption: Evidences from China

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  • Dong, Bin
  • Torgler, Benno

Abstract

With complementary Chinese data sets and alternative corruption measures, we explore the consequences of corruption. Adopting a novel approach we provide evidence that corruption can have both, positive and negative effects, on economic development. The overall impact of corruption might be the balance of the two simultaneous effects within a specific institutional environment (“grease the wheels” and “sand the wheels”). Corruption is observed to considerably increase income inequality in China. We also find that corruption strongly reduces tax revenue. Looking at things from an expenditure point of view we observe that corruption significantly decreases government spending on education, R&D and public health in China. We also observe that regional corruption significantly reduces inbound foreign direct investment in Chinese regions, which indicates that the pollution haven hypothesis may not hold in China. This finding sheds a new light on the “China puzzle” that China is the largest developing host of FDI while it is appears to be very corrupt. Finally we observe that corruption substantially aggravates pollution probably through loosening environment regulation, and that it modifies the effects of trade openness and FDI on the stringency of environmental policy in a manner opposite to that observed in literature to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Dong, Bin & Torgler, Benno, 2010. "The Consequences of Corruption: Evidences from China," Institutions and Markets Papers 91006, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:feemim:91006
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.91006
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Qiu & Maung, Min & Shi, Yulin & Wilson, Craig, 2014. "Foreign direct investment concessions and environmental levies in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 241-250.
    2. 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.
    3. Gen-Fu Feng & Bo Sui & Min-Yi Dong & Chun-xia Jiang & Chun-Ping Chang, 2018. "Border is better than distance? Contagious corruption in one belt one road economies," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1909-1928, July.
    4. Qu, Guangjun & Sylwester, Kevin & Wang, Feng, 2016. "Anticorruption and Growth: Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 72190, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Ren, Yi-Shuai & Ma, Chao-Qun & Apergis, Nicholas & Sharp, Basil, 2021. "Responses of carbon emissions to corruption across Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Liu, Baohua & Lin, Yan & Chan, Kam C. & Fung, Hung-Gay, 2018. "The dark side of rent-seeking: The impact of rent-seeking on earnings management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 94-107.
    7. Bo Sui & Gen-Fu Feng & Chun-Ping Chang, 2018. "The pioneer evidence of contagious corruption," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 945-968, March.
    8. Miao Zhang & Houli Zhang & Li Zhang & Xu Peng & Jiaxuan Zhu & Duochenxi Liu & Shibing You, 2023. "Corruption, anti-corruption, and economic development," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.

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    Keywords

    Political Economy;

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