Do the determinants of corruption differ between countries with different levels of corruption? A cross-country quantile regression analysis

This contribution responds to a research question posed by (Billger & Goel, 2009). Are there different determinants of corruption in highly corrupt countries in comparison with less corrupt countries? To answer this question, we estimate a cross-country quantile regression model adding new explicative variables. We address some problems of specification we found in the work of (Billger & Goel, 2009) and use the broadest and most recent data set used until now in such type of research (170 countries with data from 2018). We find that the variable of the size of government and the share of protestant population are good predictors of the level of corruption only for specific levels of corruption, while other variables such as the level of democracy, economic freedom, and income levels are strongly significant for all levels of corruption. In contrast to most of the studies in this area, we do not find the British colonial heritage to be relevant in explaining the current corruption level of a country.