IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cde/cdewps/123.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corruption and Competition in the Presence of Inequality and Market Imperfections

Author

Listed:
  • Indranil Dutta

    (University of Sheffield & University of East Anglia)

  • Ajit Mishra

    (University of Dundee)

Abstract

We analyze the relation between corruption, competition and inequality in a developing economy context where markets are imperfect and there is wealth inequality. We consider an economy where different types of households (efficient and inefficient) choose whether to enter the production sector or not. Due to information asymmetry and wealth inequality, the market fails to screen out the inefficient types. In addition to the imperfect screening in the credit market, the inefficient type's entry is further facilitated by corruption in the product market. We analyze the market equilibrium and look at some of the implications. We show that a rise in inequality can lead to an increase in corruption along with greater competition. By endogenising the types, we also show how in the presence of corruption, initial wealth inequality will distort the incentives of the poor and lead to trap-like situations.

Suggested Citation

  • Indranil Dutta & Ajit Mishra, 2004. "Corruption and Competition in the Presence of Inequality and Market Imperfections," Working papers 123, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:cde:cdewps:123
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cdedse.org/pdf/work123.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jakob Svensson, 2003. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much? Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 207-230.
    2. Rafael Di Tella & Alberto Ades, 1999. "Rents, Competition, and Corruption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 982-993, September.
    3. David de Meza & David C. Webb, 1987. "Too Much Investment: A Problem of Asymmetric Information," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 281-292.
    4. Acemoglu, Daron & Verdier, Thierry, 1998. "Property Rights, Corruption and the Allocation of Talent: A General Equilibrium Approach," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(450), pages 1381-1403, September.
    5. Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel & McMillan, John & Woodruff, Christopher, 2000. "Why do firms hide? Bribes and unofficial activity after communism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 495-520, June.
    6. Mookherjee, Dilip & Png, I P L, 1995. "Corruptible Law Enforcers: How Should They Be Compensated?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(428), pages 145-159, January.
    7. Frye, Timothy & Shleifer, Andrei, 1997. "The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 354-358, May.
    8. Kaushik Basu, 1999. "Child Labor: Cause, Consequence, and Cure, with Remarks on International Labor Standards," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1083-1119, September.
    9. Levin, Mark & Satarov, Georgy, 2000. "Corruption and institutions in Russia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 113-132, March.
    10. Basu, Kaushik & Bhattacharya, Sudipto & Mishra, Ajit, 1992. "Notes on bribery and the control of corruption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 349-359, August.
    11. Pranab Bardhan, 1997. "Corruption and Development: A Review of Issues," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1320-1346, September.
    12. Bliss, Christopher & Di Tella, Rafael, 1997. "Does Competition Kill Corruption?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1001-1023, October.
    13. Bester, Helmut, 1985. "Screening vs. Rationing in Credit Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 850-855, September.
    14. Jan Svejnar, 2002. "Transition Economies: Performance and Challenges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    15. Shleifer, Andrei, 1997. "Government in transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(3-5), pages 385-410, April.
    16. Erik Berglof & Patrick Bolton, 2002. "The Great Divide and Beyond: Financial Architecture in Transition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 77-100, Winter.
    17. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & N'Guessan, Tchetche, 1999. "Competition and corruption in an agency relationship," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 271-295, December.
    18. Svensson, Jakob, 2002. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3167, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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. Ajit Mishra, 2004. "Corruption: A Review," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 170, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    2. Andrzej Bolesta, 2007. "China As A Developmental State," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 3(5), pages 105-111.
    3. repec:eut:journl:v:11:y:2006:i:3:p:59 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Mishra, Ajit, 2006. "Persistence of corruption: some theoretical perspectives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 349-358, February.
    5. Ajit Mishra, 2004. "Incentives, Norms and the Persistence of Corruption," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 161, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    6. Alexeev, Michael & Song, Yunah, 2013. "Corruption and product market competition: An empirical investigation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 154-166.
    7. Diaby, Aboubacar & Sylwester, Kevin, 2015. "Corruption and Market Competition: Evidence from Post-Communist Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 487-499.

    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. Indranil Dutta & Ajit Mishra, 2005. "Inequality, Corruption, and Competition in the Presence of Market Imperfections," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-46, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Bernard Gauthier & Jonathan Goyette, 2016. "Fiscal policy and corruption," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(1), pages 57-79, January.
    3. Clarke, George R. G. & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2004. "Privatization, competition, and corruption: how characteristics of bribe takers and payers affect bribes to utilities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2067-2097, August.
    4. Cooter, Robert & Garoupa, Nuno, 2000. "The Virtuous Circle of Distrust: A Mechanism to Deter Bribes and Other Cooperative Crimes," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt83c0k3wc, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    5. Ajit Mishra, 2004. "Corruption: A Review," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 170, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    6. Foellmi, Reto & Oechslin, Manuel, 2007. "Who gains from non-collusive corruption?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 95-119, January.
    7. Estrin, Saul & Campos, Nauro & Proto, Eugenio, 2010. "Corruption as a Barrier to Entry: Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 8061, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Bassetti, Thomas & Dal Maso, Lorenzo & Lattanzi, Nicola, 2015. "Family businesses in Eastern European countries: How informal payments affect exports," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 219-233.
    9. Oluremi Ogun, 2018. "Corruption And Growth: The Productivity Growth Nexus," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(05), pages 1227-1244, December.
    10. Drugov, Mikhail, 2010. "Competition in bureaucracy and corruption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 107-114, July.
    11. Cooter Robert D. & Garoupa Nuno, 2014. "A Disruption Mechanism for Bribes," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, November.
    12. Chi, Wei & Wang, Yijiang, 2008. "Bribe-Taking by Bureaucrats: Personal and Circumstantial Determinants," MPRA Paper 8668, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Kira Boerner & Christa Hainz, 2007. "The Political Economy of Corruption & the Role of Financial Institutions," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp892, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    14. Simona Fabrizi & Steffen Lippert, 2017. "Corruption and the public display of wealth," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(4), pages 827-840, August.
    15. Pieroni, L. & d'Agostino, G., 2013. "Corruption and the effects of economic freedom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 54-72.
    16. Jakob Svensson, 2006. "Osiem pytań na temat korupcji," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 9, pages 77-106.
    17. Dalgic, Engin & Long, Ngo Van, 2006. "Corrupt local governments as resource farmers: The helping hand and the grabbing hand," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 115-138, March.
    18. Fred S. McChesney, 2010. "The Economic Analysis of Corruption," Chapters, in: Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Crime, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Sandra Blagojevic & Jože P.Damijan, 2012. "Impact of Private Incidence of Corruption and Firm Ownership on Performance of Firms in Central and Eastern Europe," LICOS Discussion Papers 31012, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    20. De Rosa, Donato & Gooroochurn, Nishaal & Gorg, Holger, 2010. "Corruption and productivity : firm-level evidence from the BEEPS survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5348, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corruption; Competition; Credit Market; Inequality; Screening.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cde:cdewps:123. 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: Sanjeev Sharma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdudein.html .

    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.