Doing business with corruption: an enterprise empirical analysisErmira Hoxha Kalaj

This article focuses on survey data and qualitative evidence from a sample of Al- banian manufacturing firms to examine the scale and consequences of corruption and tax evasion at enterprise level, discussing costs and benefits from an en- trepreneur’s perspective. The empirical results of our survey show that manufac- turing firms operating in an environment in which tax evasion is more prevalent are more likely to experience demands for bribes from corrupt officials. Regression analysis shows that tax evasion is a matter of degree and that it is not limited to small and medium-sized enterprises: even quite large firms acknowledge conceal- ing part of their sales from the tax authorities. Furthermore, enterprises that evade taxes are less likely to see an external audit while, in addition, the data predict that corruption and tax evasion are more likely to occur when the principal owner is male rather than female. Finally, the findings show that the main effect of the separation of ownership on the likelihood of bribery is insignificant.