IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v51y2015i1p15-31.html

Defining Corruption Where the State is Weak: The Case of Papua New Guinea

Author

Listed:
  • Grant W. Walton

Abstract

Corruption is often defined as the abuse of public office for private gain. This article suggests that this is inadequate for understanding corruption in weak states and presents two broader definitions of the concept. It discusses findings from qualitative and quantitative research conducted in Papua New Guinea in light of these definitions. Respondents - particularly the poor and marginalised - saw corruption as tied to the actions of public officials as well as non-state actors. It is argued that applying broader definitions of corruption could help researchers and policy makers better understand citizens' concerns about corruption, particularly where the state is weak.

Suggested Citation

  • Grant W. Walton, 2015. "Defining Corruption Where the State is Weak: The Case of Papua New Guinea," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 15-31, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:51:y:2015:i:1:p:15-31
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2014.925541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2014.925541
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2014.925541?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Transparency International TI, 2012. "Corruption Perceptions Index 2012," Working Papers id:5186, eSocialSciences.
    3. repec:cup:apsrev:v:61:y:1967:i:02:p:417-427_13 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Eugene E. Ezebilo & Francis Odhuno & Philip Kavan, 2019. "The Perceived Impact of Public Sector Corruption on Economic Performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in a Developing Country," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris, 2016. "Military Buildups, Economic Development and Corruption," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(6), pages 697-722, December.
    3. Grant W Walton, 2023. "Decentralisation, corruption and topological reach in Papua New Guinea," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(2), pages 292-312, March.
    4. Caryn Peiffer & Grant W Walton, 2022. "Getting the (right) message across: How to encourage citizens to report corruption," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(5), September.
    5. Peiffer, Caryn & Armytage, Rosita, 2019. "Searching for success: A mixed methods approach to identifying and examining positive outliers in development outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 97-107.
    6. Aline Gatignon & Marina A. B. Gama & Rodrigo B. DeMello, 2023. "The Returns to Nonmarket Strategies During Institutional Transitions: Investor Reactions to Actor and Tie Characteristics," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 916-934, March.

    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. Krambia-Kapardis Maria & Stylianou Ioanna & Demetriou Salomi, 2022. "Nonlinear nexus between corruption and tourism arrivals: a global analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 1997-2024, October.
    2. Tobias Zander, 2020. "Does corruption matter for FDI flows in the OECD? A gravity analysis," EIIW Discussion paper disbei280, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
    3. Dasgupta, Shouro & De Cian, Enrica, "undated". "Institutions and the Environment: Existing Evidence and Future Directions," MITP: Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways 240747, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    4. Hasan Ayaydin & Pinar Hayaloglu, 2014. "The Effect of Corruption on Firm Growth: Evidence from Firms in Turkey," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(5), pages 607-624, May.
    5. Buzurukov, Bilol & Lee, Byeong Wan, 2014. "The impact of corruption on apprehension level of immigrants: A study of the United States immigration," Economics Discussion Papers 2014-46, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    6. Ferdi Botha, 2016. "The Good African Society Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 57-77, March.
    7. Goran Dostic & Zdravko Todorovic & Igor Todorovic, 2013. "International Aid And Principal-Agent Relationship: Evidence From Bosnia And Herzegovina," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 9(1), pages 115-126.
    8. Maria Kravtsova & Aleksey Oshchepkov, 2019. "Market And Network Corruption," HSE Working papers WP BRP 209/EC/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    9. Ghulam Shabbir & Mumtaz Anwar & Shahid Adil, 2016. "Corruption, Political Stability and Economic Growth," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 689-702.
    10. Lurdes Martins & Jorge Cerdeira & Aurora A.C. Teixeira, 2020. "Does corruption boost or harm firms’ performance in developing and emerging economies? A firm‐level study," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 2119-2152, August.
    11. Tomasi, Chiara & Le, Quoc Thai & Nguyen, Thi Ngoc Lan, 2025. "Greasing or Grinding? Regulatory context and the productivity effects of corruption: Evidence from Vietnamese SMEs," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    12. Marta Santagata & Enrico Ivaldi & Riccardo Soliani, 2019. "Development and Governance in the Ex-Soviet Union: An Empirical Inquiry," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 157-190, January.
    13. Jac C Heckelman & Benjamin Powell, 2010. "Corruption and the Institutional Environment for Growth," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 52(3), pages 351-378, September.
    14. Patricia Crifo & Marc-Arthur Diaye & Rim Oueghlissi, 2014. "Measuring the effect of government ESG performance on sovereign borrowing cost," CIRANO Working Papers 2014s-37, CIRANO.
    15. 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.
    16. Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2020. "The effect of corruption on stock market volatility," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(2), pages 1-6.
    17. Ghulam, Yaseen, 2021. "Institutions and firms’ technological changes and productivity growth," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    18. Dzhumashev, Ratbek, 2014. "Corruption and growth: The role of governance, public spending, and economic development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 202-215.
    19. Barra, Cristian & Papaccio, Anna & Ruggiero, Nazzareno, 2024. "The interaction between corruption, bank cost efficiency and economic development in Italy," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(3).
    20. 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).

    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:jdevst:v:51:y:2015:i:1:p:15-31. 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/FJDS20 .

    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.