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Fighting Corruption in Education: What Works and Who Benefits?

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  • Oana Borcan
  • Mikael Lindahl
  • Andreea Mitrut

Abstract

We investigate the distributional consequences of a corruption-fighting initiative in Romania targeting the endemic fraud in a high-stakes high school exit exam, which introduced CCTV monitoring of the exam and credible punishment threats for teachers and students. We find that the campaign was effective in reducing corruption and, in particular, that monitoring increased the effectiveness of the punishment threats. Estimating the heterogeneous impact for students of different poverty status we show that curbing corruption led to a worrisome score gap increase between poor and nonpoor students. Consequently, the poor students have reduced chances to enter an elite university.

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  • Oana Borcan & Mikael Lindahl & Andreea Mitrut, 2017. "Fighting Corruption in Education: What Works and Who Benefits?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 180-209, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:9:y:2017:i:1:p:180-209
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150074
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    Cited by:

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    3. Machin, Stephen & McNally, Sandra & Ruiz-Valenzuela, Jenifer, 2020. "Entry through the narrow door: The costs of just failing high stakes exams," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Lisa Sofie Höckel & Manuel Santos Silva & Tobias Stöhr, 2018. "Can Parental Migration Reduce Petty Corruption in Education?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 109-126.
    5. M. Shahe Emran & Asadul Islam & Forhad Shilpi, 2020. "Distributional Effects of Corruption When Enforcement is Biased: Theory and Evidence from Bribery in Schools in Bangladesh," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(348), pages 985-1015, October.
    6. Cabrales, Antonio & Kendall, Ryan & Sánchez, Anxo, 2019. "Effective policies and social norms in the presence of driverless cars: Theory and experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 13784, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Puhani, Patrick A. & Yang, Philip, 2020. "Does increased teacher accountability decrease leniency in grading?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 333-341.
    8. Marina Cavalieri & Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio, 2020. "Does the Fish Rot from the Head? Organised Crime and Educational Outcomes in Southern Italy," Working papers 97, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    9. Oana Borcan & Mikael Lindahl & Andreea Mitrut, 2017. "Fighting Corruption in Education: What Works and Who Benefits?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 180-209, February.
    10. Ainsworth, Robert & Dehejia, Rajeev & Pop-Eleches, Cristian & Urquiola, Miguel, 2020. "Information, Preferences, and Household Demand for School Value Added," IZA Discussion Papers 13980, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Conover, Emily & Kraynak, Daniel & Singh, Prakarsh, 2023. "The effect of traffic cameras on police effort: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    12. Verwimp, Philip, 2023. "Ethno-regional favoritism and the political economy of school test scores," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    13. Cavalieri, Marina & Finocchiaro Castro, Massimo & Guccio, Calogero, 2023. "Organised crime and educational outcomes in Southern Italy: An empirical investigation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    14. Andrei Munteanu, 2024. "School Choice, Student Sorting and Academic Performance," Working Papers 24-03, Research Group on Human Capital, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management.
    15. Fumagalli, Laura & Rabe, Birgitta & Burn, Hettie, 2023. "Teacher grade predictions for ethnic minority groups: evidence from England," ISER Working Paper Series 2023-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Abdulfattah Omar & Waheed Altohami & Muhammad Afzaal, 2022. "Assessment of the Governance Quality of the Departments of English in Saudi Universities: Implications for Sustainable Development," World Journal of English Language, Sciedu Press, vol. 12(8), pages 443-443, December.
    17. Andris Zimelis, 2020. "Corruption research: A need for an integrated approach," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 288-306, September.
    18. Dreber, Anna & Johannesson, Magnus & Yang, Yifan, 2023. "Selective Reporting of Placebo Tests in Top Economics Journals," I4R Discussion Paper Series 31, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    19. Donna Harris & Oana Borcan & Danila Serra & Henry Telli & Bruno Schettini & Stefan Dercon, 2022. "Proud to belong: The impact of ethics training on police officers," CSAE Working Paper Series 2022-05, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    20. Oana Borcan & James Merewood, 2022. "Positive Disruption? Meritocratic Principal Selection and Student Achievement," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2022-11, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    21. Robert Ainsworth & Rajeev Dehejia & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Miguel Urquiola, 2023. "Why Do Households Leave School Value Added on the Table? The Roles of Information and Preferences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(4), pages 1049-1082, April.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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