IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijethy/v18y2022i4p440-460.html

Wheels and cycles: Suboptimality and volatility of corrupted economies

Author

Listed:
  • Stefano Bosi
  • David Desmarchelier
  • Thai Ha‐Huy

Abstract

We consider a simple economy where production depends on labor supply and social capital. Networking increases the social capital (“greases the wheel”) but also the corruption level (“sands the wheel”). Corruption is a negative productive externality. We compare the market economy, where the negative externality is not taken into account by individuals, with a centralized economy, where the planner internalizes the negative effect. We highlight the possible existence of cycles in the market economy and optimal cycles in the planned economy. We compare the centralized and the decentralized solutions in the short and long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Bosi & David Desmarchelier & Thai Ha‐Huy, 2022. "Wheels and cycles: Suboptimality and volatility of corrupted economies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(4), pages 440-460, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijethy:v:18:y:2022:i:4:p:440-460
    DOI: 10.1111/ijet.12323
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ijet.12323
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ijet.12323?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Sidorkin, Oleg & Vorobyev, Dmitriy, 2018. "Political cycles and corruption in Russian regions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 55-74.
    3. Olson, Mancur, Jr & Sarna, Naveen & Swamy, Anand V, 2000. "Governance and Growth: A Simple Hypothesis Explaining Cross-Country Differences in Productivity Growth," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 102(3-4), pages 341-364, March.
    4. Engelbert Dockner & Gustav Feichtinger, 1991. "On the optimality of limit cycles in dynamic economic systems," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 31-50, February.
    5. Mushfiq Swaleheen, 2011. "Economic growth with endogenous corruption: an empirical study," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 23-41, January.
    6. Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Khalid Sekkat, 2005. "Does corruption grease or sand the wheels of growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 69-97, January.
    7. Medio, Alfredo, 1987. "Oscillations in optimal growth models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 201-206, June.
    8. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Weill, Laurent, 2010. "Is Corruption an Efficient Grease?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 244-259, March.
    9. Jess Benhabib & Kazuo Nishimura, 2012. "The Hopf Bifurcation and Existence and Stability of Closed Orbits in Multisector Models of Optimal Economic Growth," Springer Books, in: John Stachurski & Alain Venditti & Makoto Yano (ed.), Nonlinear Dynamics in Equilibrium Models, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 51-73, Springer.
    10. Wirl, Franz, 2004. "Sustainable growth, renewable resources and pollution: Thresholds and cycles," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1149-1157, March.
    11. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    12. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    13. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    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. Cuong Le Van & Ngoc-Sang Pham & Thi Kim Cuong Pham & Binh Tran-Nam, 2025. "Governance, productivity and economic development," Working Papers hal-05163866, HAL.

    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. Ma Salinas-Jiménez & Javier Salinas-Jiménez, 2011. "Corruption and total factor productivity: level or growth effects?," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 10(2), pages 109-128, August.
    2. Alfredo Monte & Luca Pennacchio, 2020. "Corruption, Government Expenditure and Public Debt in OECD Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 62(4), pages 739-771, December.
    3. Uberti, Luca J., 2022. "Corruption and growth: Historical evidence, 1790–2010," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 321-349.
    4. Anselm Komla Abotsi & Isaac Kwesi Ampah, 2024. "Public Debt and Economic Growth in Africa in the Pre-Covid Era: The Role of Control of Corruption," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 14(1), pages 144-153, January.
    5. Alfredo Monte & Luca Pennacchio, 0. "Corruption, Government Expenditure and Public Debt in OECD Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 0, pages 1-33.
    6. Isham, Jonathan & Kaufmann,Daniel, 1995. "The forgotten rationale for policy reform : the productivity of investment projects," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1549, The World Bank.
    7. Shaukat, Badiea & Zhu, Qigui & Khan, M. Ijaz, 2019. "Real interest rate and economic growth: A statistical exploration for transitory economies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 534(C).
    8. Manamba Epaphra, & Aminiel Humphrey Kombe,, 2017. "Institutions and economic growth in Africa: Evidence from panel estimation," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 13(5), pages 570-590, December.
    9. Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas, 2019. "Corruption and economic growth: New empirical evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Aparicio, Sebastian & Urbano, David & Audretsch, David, 2016. "Institutional factors, opportunity entrepreneurship and economic growth: Panel data evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 45-61.
    11. Dzhumashev, Ratbek, 2014. "Corruption and growth: The role of governance, public spending, and economic development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 202-215.
    12. Max Iván Aladave Ruiz & Cecilia Garcìa-Peñalosa, 2008. "Education, Corruption and the Natural Resource Curse," Working Papers halshs-00340997, HAL.
    13. M.Rosaria Alfano & A. Laura Baraldi, 2008. "The design of electoral rules and their impact on economic growth: the Italian case," Working Papers 3_2008, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    14. Ekaterina Ponomareva & Alexandra Bozhechkova & Alexandr Knobel, 2012. "Factors of Economic Growth," Published Papers 172, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2013.
    15. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Weill, Laurent, 2010. "Is Corruption an Efficient Grease?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 244-259, March.
    16. Ben Hamouda, Abderrazek, 2018. "La qualité de gouvernance et le triangle croissance-inégalité-pauvreté [The relationship between growth-inequality-poverty triangle and governance]," MPRA Paper 92207, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Capasso, Salvatore & Santoro, Lodovico, 2025. "Corruption and economic growth: Greasing the wheels or sanding the gears? Evidence from Italian regions," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1158-1179.
    18. LABED Lazhar & BOUCENNA Mohammed Ridha & BENZOUAI Mohamed Cherif, 2022. "Analyzing The Impact Of Corruption On Income Levels Disparity Between Countries," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(2), pages 160-175, August.
    19. Kim, Dong-Hyeon & Wu, Yi-Chen & Lin, Shu-Chin, 2018. "Heterogeneity in the effects of government size and governance on economic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 205-216.
    20. Zheng, Bingyong & Xiao, Junji, 2020. "Corruption and Investment: Theory and Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 40-54.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

    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:bla:ijethy:v:18:y:2022:i:4:p:440-460. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1742-7355 .

    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.