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Does electronic government deter corruption? Evidence from across the world

Author

Listed:
  • João Martins

    (Universidade do Minho, Escola de Economia e Gestão, Centre for Research in Economics and Management (NIPE), and UNU-EGOV)

  • Linda Veiga

    (Universidade do Minho, Escola de Economia e Gestão, Centre for Research in Economics and Management (NIPE))

  • Bruno Fernandes

    (Universidade do Minho, Escola de Economia e Gestão, Centre for Research in Economics and Management (NIPE))

Abstract

Electronic government innovations are one of the most important changes in public administration in recent years. Governments in many countries have implemented egovernment policies to foster efficiency and transparency, and to mitigate corruption. This paper explores the effects of e-government on corruption using longitudinal data for more than 170 countries for the period 2002-2017. Empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that e-government can be used to deter corruption. This result is robust to alternative indicators of corruption and e-government, as well as to a variety of estimation techniques. A novelty of our research is that we analyse under which conditions is e-government more effective in reducing corruption. Quantile regressionsindicate that the potential of e-government to deter corruption is higher between quantiles 0.3 to 0.8 of the corruption distribution. E-government also reveals to be a more effective corruption deterrent in countries that are not classified as hig--income countries and that are not in the extremes of the freedom of the press variable distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • João Martins & Linda Veiga & Bruno Fernandes, 2021. "Does electronic government deter corruption? Evidence from across the world," NIPE Working Papers 02/2021, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    • Handle: RePEc:nip:nipewp:02/2021
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    File URL: http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/71616/1/WP%202%202021.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Martins, João & Veiga, Linda Gonçalves, 2022. "Digital government as a business facilitator," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    corruption; electronic government; governance; information; transparency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • O5 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies

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