Transparency
and Health as Complementary Public Goods
James Stodder and Peter W. Schroth
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute*
Presented at the XIII World Congress of the
International Economics Association;
ABSTRACT: The social basis of corruption helps resolve a paradox: that a rationally selfish state has the incentive to limit corruption, but may not have the means. "Transparency" (lack of corruption plus openness to public scrutiny) cannot be provided by government alone. Transparency depends upon other basic public goods that, like transparency itself, require voluntary inputs by private households. Health is a "socially produced" public good, at least in part. While transparency has already been shown to promote public health outcomes, we present evidence that the reverse causality also holds, so that health and transparency are mutually reinforcing. It is argued that anti-corruption incentives in poor countries must be linked with (a) investment in basic public infrastructure and (b) retooling business and government institutions toward traditional forms of social-reciprocal enforcement of honesty, such as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs).
Journal of Economic Literature codes: K420, F230, O170
1. Introduction
We do not want to know if life improves when
William Easterly (1999)
There is widespread agreement that corruption is bad for growth; why, then, are many countries that desire growth nevertheless so corrupt? Identifying the self-interests of kleptocratic elites (Charap & Harm 1999, Olson 2000) provides only a partial answer, because there are many more parties to corruption than the governmental and business elites. For large scale corruption to be effective in its own terms, there must also be widespread cooperation by middle class professionals, small business owners, and probably even most urban families.
Corruption is not merely the strong taking from the weak; it is a public bad, a culture of corruption maintained by daily actions, and by millions of willing participants. This much is well known to most people, but what is not so obvious is the logical connection between the publicness of the corruption bad and the difficulty in devising effective incentives against it, especially in developing countries.
One aim of this paper is to explain why anti-corruption incentives are so difficult to implement. We begin with the paradox that rationally self-interested state actors will wish to end widespread corruption, which is demonstrably a terrible barrier to growth. Corruption, therefore, should be strictly limited even by a self-interested state, one that is, in the memorable formulation of Mancur Olson (2000), a "stationary bandit," maximizing the economic surplus it can extract. It is elementary to show that decentralized and uncontrolled graft makes a state "weakly corrupt," i.e., too corrupt for its own selfish good: charging multiple corruption "taxes" that are too high to maximize its total tax revenue.[1] The obvious fact that such states are too weak to reform themselves – too corrupt to rationalize their own corruption – is a hint that the sources of corruption may be beyond direct state control.
Transparency (the relative absence of corruption) is a public good analogous to clean air or water (the relative absence of pollution). As such, its provision can be expected to be closely tied to the success of a society in providing other basic public goods, such as education, health, and economic security. The new political economy literature models the causality between corruption and these other goods as simple and unidirectional: corruption slows down growth, while both corruption and slower growth damage these pubic goods. We demonstrate that some of these public goods and bads are bound together in a simultaneously determining relationship, part of a socio-cultural whole. The way in which they are connected has important implications for development and for anti-corruption policy.
To be clear, we agree with the dominant anti-corruption literature (Gupta et al. 1998, 2000): transparency directly promotes health, education, and economic security, even after accounting for its indirect benefit through faster growth. But that is only half the story. We further show that the reverse is also true, that improvements in at least one of these public goods, health, also encourage transparency. Thus, causality is not unidirectional; it is simultaneous. The econometric methodology for doing this is a straightforward instrumental variable approach, the same as that used by Gupta and many others in the literature.
We argue that human capital investment into traditional community networks is an effective way of preventing "corruption" within the networks themselves; i.e., to prevent cheating on fellow community members. A key aspect of the problem of corruption in modern bureaucracies, in business and government, is the impersonalization and separation of these structures from traditional community networks.
Corruption
can be prevented only by large scale investment in the public goods of
enforcement and monitoring, by traditional social network monitoring, or, in
most cases, by institutions that have evolved out of compromises between the
two. The Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) in the
It is possible to find traditional social and modern public
forms of providing these public goods.
The Grameen Bank "micro-financing" institution (see
www.grameen-info.org) is perhaps the best-known traditional analogy to the
modern SEC example, but a host of other examples have emerged in developing
countries, and now constitute a veritable micro-finance revolution (Beasley et al. 1993, De Soto 2000). The World Bank now supports a network of
micro-financing programs around the world.[2] These programs seek to legalize and
securitize the vast informal sector in all the cities of the developing world,
where
2. The Paradox of Persistent, Immiserizing Corruption
That corruption is negatively correlated with growth is easy to show. The "new economics of growth" literature shows a strong positive correlation between economic growth and most indicators of human happiness: health, education, democracy, and transparency (Barro 1997). Another intellectual current, "the new political economy of corruption" literature, has shown that corruption is negatively correlated with growth, and hence also inimical to the progress of human happiness. (See Mauro 1995; Lopez & Mitra 2000; Gupta et al. 2000.)
There is now a substantial body of published research into the effects of corruption. For instance, Maoro (1997, p. 91) found a strong negative correlation between perceived corruption, on one hand, and GDP and investment, on the other:
This means that if a given country were to improve its corruption “grade” from 6 out of 10 to 8 out of 10, its investment-GDP ratio would rise by almost 4 percentage points and its annual growth of GDP per capita would rise by almost half a percentage point.
Generally similar conclusions were reached by Burki & Perry (1998), Hines (1995), Wei (2000), and Rose-Ackerman (1978, 1997, 1999).[3]
These findings are particularly important when linked with recent estimates by Reisen & Soto (2001) on the relation between foreign investment and growth. Using a panel data set of 44 developing countries over the period 1986 to 1997, these authors find that both foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment correlate positively and significantly with long term GDP growth. As we shall see, panel data sets allow us to estimate directly the effects of change within countries over time, not just differences between countries, at more or less the same time.
Despite
the conclusion these of studies – that a government curtailing corruption
should reap large payoffs in growth and welfare – effective anti-corruption
incentives are weak to non-existent in much of the developing world. After persistent prodding by the
With
the notable exceptions of the OAS Convention and the Council of Europe’s
Criminal Law Convention, there has been little anti-corruption action by
developing countries, but very recent events include hopeful signs. For example, no African country has or ever
had a law criminalizing foreign bribery, as far as we have been able to
determine (Schroth & Sharma 2002), but the Prevention of Corruption Bill,
introduced by the Government in South Africa in April 2002, not only will reach
that but, if adopted in its current form, will be, in many respects, the
harshest and most sweeping anti-bribery law of any country in the world.[8]
No African country is a party to any anti-bribery convention, but
The
OECD Convention is designed for investor countries – the payers of bribes – not
for the host countries in which they are paid, so most of
3.
Transparency as a Public Good
a.
A Socially Produced Public Good
That private spillovers, externalities, can have
public consequences for good or ill is one of the staples of economic theory
(Heal & DasGupta 1980). Insofar as
property or liability rights have not been established to adequately cover and
encourage market-based voluntary transfers among these spillover goods and
bads, the efficiency implication is very clear.
Receiving no market sanction, negative spillovers will be overproduced;
receiving no market reward, positive spillovers will be underproduced – in each
case, relative to an efficient level of provision. Although policy prescriptions differ widely,
this basic argument is entirely uncontroversial among economists, even staunch
libertarians (Friedman 1982).
Transparency is self-evidently a public
good. It is a good because most of the public benefits from transparent
institutions in the form of lower transaction costs and reduced risk. It is a classically public good because my use of this benefit does not “use up” the
amount of it available to anyone else, and thus will not affect its price. In
fact, my use of transparent procedures may, in some cases, even increase the
amount of transparency available to everyone else. In particular, this public good of
transparency is created primarily as the positive spillover of millions of
“private” acts. That is, transparency is
usually enforced by accounting standards and by laws. But it can be maintained only by the largely
voluntary or habitual compliance of individuals, including accountants,
lawyers, and official legal guardians.
It is virtually always the case that the
transparent act confers benefits extending beyond the individuals who practice
it. It not only sets standards and
expectations among others who will benefit from the good provided, but in some
cases may directly and significantly reduce corruption costs to many other
people. The conferring of external
benefits becomes problematic when the private cost to the individual who
produces the transparent practice outweighs the private benefit accruing to him
or her. This may be the case because,
when transparency is not well established, insistence on such procedures may
entail substantial economic and personal risks.
Transparency is far from unique in being a public
good that is primarily produced by voluntary provision within long-term social
networks, instead of by direct governmental production, in the way that a
government builds, say, a hydro-electric dam. [9] Most public goods can be and are produced as
by voluntary acts within social networks and communities, both for
self-interested reasons of long-term reciprocity and for emotional commitments
to values and to other human beings. (See Frank & Scitovsky 1992; Axelrod
& Cohen 2000.)
The implications for anti-corruption policy are
straightforward in theory, if difficult in their policy implications. If transparency is a public good produced by
both governmental provision and voluntary social networks, it should be
correlated with the society's success in providing other public goods meeting
basic human needs, especially those also produced partially by diffuse social
networks. This paper examines the
correlation between corruption and another such (partially) public good: health
care. Health care is indeed positively
correlated with transparency, at least in this cross-section of countries. (We also tested the relationship between measures
of Education and Transparency, and found an empirical correlation quite similar
to that between Health and Transparency.
Our results were short of statistical significance, however, and will
not be presented here.)
If health care is both a product of, and a
contributor to, the “social capital” accumulated within voluntary social
networks, then its provision should not only be correlated with the provision of other public goods, such as
transparency, but also should help determine
the levels of their provision. This is
the argument about causality that we address in the econometric methods of
within-country panel estimates, discussed in the next section.
First, let us look at a simple model of cost-complementarity in the provision
of health care (H) and transparency (T), and two individuals (1, and
2). The demand for H, a straightforward
public good, is found by the summing of the
demands by both 1 and 2:
Ph1 = a - bH, Ph2 = c - dH => Ph = Ph1 + Ph2 = (a+c) - (b+d)H.
The demand for T is formed similarly:
Pt1 = e - fT, Pt2 = g - hT => Pt = Pt1 + Pt2 = (e+g) - (f+h)T.
H and T are cost complements in the sense that
the more of one is produced, the cheaper it is to produce the other. Simple cost functions would be as follows:
C(H) = j + kH + mH2 - nHT => MCh = (k -nT) + 2mH, and
C(T) = q + rH + sH2 - tHT => MCt = (r -tH) + 2sT.
Below is a simple graph of the supply and demand for transparency:
Note that for parameters such as shown above, the
relation between the provision of health care (H) and transparency (T) is:
a) If there is free riding, but with full provision
of H, then T will be undervalued by society and move from E1 to E3, even though
its cost of production is correct.
b) If H falls, but with no free riding (so we have
both layers of demand), this pushes T provision from E1 to E2 – i.e., from an
intercept as low as r-tH, to one as high as r.
Transparency is now being correctly valued by demand, but has become too
costly to provide adequately.
c) If there is both free riding and non-provision of
the complementary good H, then transparency may disappear altogether, moving
from E1 to intercept e.
Transparency is both not adequately valued by societal demand, and has
become too costly to supply.
The policy recommendations of this argument are
fairly straightforward. For a set of
public goods which are cost complements, “free riding” is not just one good at
a time. Under-provision of any one of
the interlinked public goods can have drastic consequences on many others –
even if there is no free riding on these other public goods by themselves – as in case b) above. An anti-corruption strategy, therefore,
cannot concentrate on corruption alone, and certainly not just on punishing
it. It must rely on building up the
traditional social networks that can and do maintain, at least to some degree,
both transparency and other public goods, such as health. And it must recognize that, to the extent
modernization and economic growth dismantle and dissolve these traditional
values and networks, modernization will promote
rather than diminish corruption.
This debilitating backwash of modernization is
now taken seriously by development economists and anthropologists studying the
social capital invested in traditional organizations such as Rotating Savings
and Credit Associations (“ROSCAs”).
ROSCAs are found throughout the developing world (Beasley et al. 1993, Stodder 1995, De Soto
2000), and there is an impressive record of projects like Grameen Bank that
have built upon them, rather than trying to surpass them. Grameen Bank has a rate of loan repayment
better than that of many commercial banks in the developed world. Therefore,
a policy of anti-corruption should concentrate on:
a) providing basic needs public goods, such as
health, education, economic security, and public safety, both directly and
through traditional social networks.
b) shoring-up those traditional social networks
themselves, by promoting business, governmental and communal forms that are
based on these forms of accumulated social capital, rather than predicated upon
their dismantling and dissolution.
These points are re-examined in the conclusion.
b.
Variation Within
(as Opposed to Between) Countries:
Income versus Transparency and the Rule of Law
With the exception of the Reisen & Soto
study, the papers cited above are based on cross-sectional data tests.
A widely-cited paper by Maoro (1997), for example, is sub-titled,
"A Cross-Country Analysis." To
test the emerging consensus on growth, Easterly (1999) constructed a large international
panel data set on income growth and standard indicia of progress under
development – transparency, health, and education.
Easterly argues that it is highly misleading to
assume that this variation between
rich and poor countries provides a map for income growth within any single country:
The bad news is that other key modernization or
development indicators like democracy, good institutions, human rights, years
of schooling, school enrollment ratios, and life expectancy do not robustly
improve with income controlling for country effects and sometimes even have the
wrong sign. (Easterly 1999, p. 16.)
The present paper builds upon Easterly's
findings. We use his panel data to show how corruption interacts with other
quality-of-life variables, such as health.
Testing for within country variation, we show that improvements in
health can improve transparency, independently of the negative effect of income
upon transparency. That is, even after
accounting for the positive relation of income upon the health, the effect of
higher income upon freedom from corruption (transparency) remains negative.[10]
Why does it not work, this seemingly reasonable use of cross-sectional
variation to map the historical trajectory of development? One depressing possibility is that variations
between countries that are largely fixed and immune to policy even in the
reasonably long run may explain most cross-country variation in
development. Easterly & Levine
(1997), Sachs & Warner (1997), and other empirical investigators have
suggested that fixed factors (such as access to the sea, location in the
tropics, ethno-linguistic fragmentation, and resource abundance) may explain
more between-country income variation than any policy-relevant variables.
It is also true that transparency and
health are higher in the richer countries, and their correlation can be shown
to be highly significant. This leads to
the “virtuous circle” argument based on cross sectional evidence. But, as will be seen from the panel data
estimates, the within-country variation between income and transparency is also
significant, and strongly negative.[11]
4. Empirical
Estimates: The Problem of the Direction
of Causality; Health Care and Corruption
Here we wish to assess accurately the effect of both health and income on corruption. Easterly shows in Tables 1 and 2 (and we do not repeat his regressions showing) that:
1) Higher
income improves life expectancy between countries, but harms it within countries.
Higher income tends to improve infant mortality, both between and within
countries.
2) Income
growth improves transparency and rule of law between, but harms them within, countries.
In contrast to 2), we show that higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality improve both transparency and rule of law, both within and between countries. Because income pushes healthcare up but transparency down, the interesting question is their joint effect on transparency. Here we follow the standard practice of the literature (Pritchett & Summers 1996), and model income as more determinative of health care than vice versa. A truly complete model would test for co-determination here, and our estimation procedure in no way rules this out. Lacking appropriate data "instruments" to determine income growth, however, our instrumental variable approach will look merely at "one side," the effect of income on health care.
We begin applying instrumental variables to our health care variables – life expectancy and infant mortality. To begin with, we must model the determination of life expectancy as dependent on both income and other instrumental variables: length of paved highways, and cars per capita. That ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is shown in Table 1 below:
TABLE 1. Dependent variable: LIFE EXPECTANCY, Observations = 107
Ordinary
Least Squares (OLS) Estimates
Mean dependent variable |
62.857 |
R-Squared |
0.742 |
|
Standard Error Regression |
10.421 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.729 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
|
Constant |
46.654 |
31.617 |
[.000] |
|
Sanitation |
0.165 |
6.878 |
[.000] |
|
Highway Distance |
2.08E-02 |
0.950 |
[.344] |
|
Cars per Capita |
-8.738 |
-0.904 |
[.368] |
|
Per Capita Income |
1.40E-03 |
3.407 |
[.001] |
|
CO2 per Capita |
-0.257 |
-0.950 |
[.344] |
Note that there is likely multicollinearity or
functional dependency between variables here: for example, between Cars per
Capita and CO2 per Capita. If
we were concerned about estimates of the coefficients, this would be a
problem. Because we are interested only
in generating a "fitted" form of life expectancy, however, multicollinearity
is of no concern.
Next, we show the estimates of the
between-country and within-country effects of life expectancy upon
transparency. The between- and
within-country equations are shown here as (1a) and (1b), relating to the
Tables 2a and 2b, respectively:
Transparency i
= Constant + b*(Life Expectancy i ) +
c*(Per Capita Income i ) + ε i (1a)
Transparency it = Constant i + b*(Life Expectancy it ) + c*(Per Capita Income it ) + ε it (1b)
where i = (1, 2, …, C) the number of countries, and t = (1, 2, ..T), the number of time periods observed. Note that in the following data, the numbers of countries is at most 106, and the maximum number of times periods is 2 (1980 and 1990).
TABLE 2:
Dependent variable: TRANSPARENCY, O = 107,
C = 70, T = 2, P = 37,
where O = # Observations, C = # Countries, T = Maximum #
of Time Periods, P = # of Paired
observations (number of countries with both time periods observed.
TABLE 2a.
BETWEEN COUNTRY Estimates (OLS on
Country means, 70 Observations):
Mean dependent variable |
3.400 |
R-Squared |
0.543 |
|
Standard Error Regression |
1.648 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.530 |
|
|
|
|
||
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
|
Constant |
-1.987 |
-0.947 |
[.347] |
|
Life Expectancy (fitted) |
7.63E-02 |
1.976 |
[.052] |
|
Per capita INCOME |
1.23E-04 |
1.647 |
[.104] |
TABLE
2b. WITHIN COUNTRY Estimates
(Fixed Effects, 107 Observations):
Mean dependent variable |
3.327 |
R-Squared |
0.943 |
||
Standard Error Regression |
1.753 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.827 |
||
Durbin-Watson Statistic |
2.00 |
[1.00] |
|
||
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
||
Constant i |
– |
– |
– |
||
Life Expectancy (fitted) |
0.110 |
2.298 |
[.028] |
||
Per Capita INCOME |
-3.63E-04 |
-2.654 |
[.012] |
||
Hausman test of H0: RE vs. FE: CHISQ(2) =
13.337, P-value = [.0012]
In Table 2b's within-country estimates, the coefficient
on Life Expectancy is positive and significant, while that on the Income term
has turned significantly negative. Comparing this with Table 2a, note that the
positive effect of Life Expectancy upon Transparency is seriously understated
in these between-country estimates. The
coefficient on Life Expectancy in Table 2b is almost twice as high as in 2a, as
well as having a higher t-statistic.
Similarly, the coefficient on per-capita Income in Table 2b is not only
of the opposite sign from that in Table 2a, but is also far more significant.
In the within-country estimates of the effect of
income alone on transparency (not shown here), income showed a negative
correlation with transparency. The
present estimates strengthen that basic conclusion, by adding the "omitted
variable" of health care. Because
life expectancy is positively correlated with transparency, while income itself
is negatively correlated with both transparency and life expectancy, a biasing of the results can be
expected to hold when life expectancy is omitted from the equation. Income's negative influence on transparency
looks smaller when “flying solo,” without the positive offset of life
expectancy, than when life expectancy is included (2b). The coefficient values are |-2.24 E-04| < |-3.63
E-04|, respectively.
Along with the data on transparency, Easterly's
data set has observations on the "Rule of Law," both assembled by the
IRIS Country Risk Database (
An authoritarian state may be relatively
uncorrupted without having much rule of law.
The highly militarized states of Algeria and Israel, for example, show respectable
Transparency scores of 4 and 5, but fall to 2 and 1 for their Rule of Law scores, respectively (both
scores can take values between 0 and 6).
At the other extreme, states may have strong traditions for the rule of
law, and still be relatively open to corruption.
The equations on rule of law have functional
forms similar to (1a), (1b):
RuleLaw i
= Constant + b* Transparency I +
c*(Income i ) + ε i
(2a)
RuleLaw it = Constant i + b* Transparency it + c*(Income it ) + ε it
(2b)
TABLE 3: Dependent
variable: RULE OF LAW, O = 107,
C = 70, T = 2, P = 37,
where O = # Observations, C = # Countries, T = Maximum #
of Time Periods,
P = # of
Paired observations (number
of countries with both time periods observed).
TABLE 3a. BETWEEN COUNTRY Estimates (OLS on Country means, 70 Observations):
Mean dependent variable |
2.961 |
R-Squared |
0.604 |
|
Standard Error Regression |
1.800 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.592 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
|
Constant |
-0.497 |
-0.233 |
[.817] |
|
Life Expectancy (fitted) |
3.65E-02 |
0.931 |
[.355] |
|
Per capita INCOME |
2.39E-04 |
3.145 |
[.002] |
TABLE
3b. WITHIN COUNTRY Estimates
(Fixed Effects, 107 Observations):
Mean dependent variable |
2.935 |
R-Squared |
0.977 |
||
Standard Error Regression |
1.881 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.932 |
||
Durbin-Watson Statistic |
2.00 |
[1.00] |
|
||
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
||
Constant i |
– |
– |
– |
||
Life Expectancy (fitted) |
7.40E-02 |
2.301 |
[.027] |
||
Per Capita INCOME |
-2.59E-04 |
-2.811 |
[.008] |
||
Hausman test of H0: RE vs. FE: CHISQ(2) = 27.407, P-value = [.0000]
Interpreting these results in terms of
elasticities, we can take the regressions in Tables 2b and 3b, and evaluate
them at the sample means for Transparency, Rule of Law, Life Expectancy and Per
Capita Income (3.327, 2.935, 62.86 years, and $4,917,
respectively):
Table 4: Life Expectancy versus Income – Effects on Transparency
and Rule of Law
Effects of |
Coefficient |
Elasticity |
Life Expectancy on Transparency |
0.110 |
2.078 |
Income on Transparency |
-3.63E-04 |
-0.537 |
|
||
Life Expectancy on Rule of Law |
7.40E-02 |
1.585 |
Income on Rule of Law |
-2.59E-04 |
-0.434 |
These results are rather striking. A one percent increase in Life Expectancy
yields better than a 2.0 percent and 1.5 percent improvement in Transparency
and Rule of Law, respectively. Those
elasticities are almost 4 times as great as the elasticities on income, and in
the opposite direction. We conclude that
improving life expectancy may be a cost-effective way to improve other public
goods linked to corruption, much more so than an increase in income itself.
Turning to another measure of general health,
infant mortality, the results are very similar. Infant mortality is a bad, so the negative
association of income mortality with income, both between and (not shown)
within countries, is clearly a good thing. The OLS result is here:
TABLE 5. Dependent variable: INFANT MORTALITY, Observations = 105
Ordinary
Least Squares (OLS) Estimates
Mean dependent variable |
61.676 |
R-Squared |
0.755 |
|
Standard Error Regression |
46.718 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.743 |
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
|
Constant |
133.811 |
21.102 |
[.000] |
|
Sanitation |
-0.838 |
-7.821 |
[.000] |
|
Highways |
-0.065 |
-0.680 |
[.498] |
|
Cars Per Capita |
10.784 |
0.255 |
[.799] |
|
Per Capita INCOME |
-3.51E-03 |
-1.925 |
[.057] |
|
CO2 Per Capita |
-0.147 |
-0.118 |
[.906] |
TABLE 6: Dependent variable: TRANSPARENCY, O
= 105, C = 69, T = 2, P = 36,
where O = # Observations, C = # Countries, T = Maximum #
of Time Periods,
P = # of
Paired observations (number
of countries with both time periods observed)
TABLE 6a. BETWEEN COUNTRY (OLS on Country means, 69
Observations) Estimates:
Mean dependent variable |
3.442 |
R-Squared |
0.586 |
||
Standard Error Regression |
1.697 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.574 |
||
|
|
|
|
||
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
||
Constant |
3.905 |
5.047 |
[.000] |
||
Infant Mortality (fitted) |
-0.018 |
-2.403 |
[.019] |
||
Per capita INCOME |
1.29E-04 |
2.021 |
[.047] |
||
TABLE 6b.
WITHIN COUNTRY (Fixed Effects, 105 Observations) Estimates:
Mean dependent variable |
3.371 |
R-Squared |
0.944 |
||
Standard Error Regression |
1.783 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.830 |
||
Durbin-Watson Statistic |
2.000 |
[1.000] |
|
||
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
||
Constant I |
– |
– |
– |
||
Infant Mortality (fitted) |
-2.00E-02 |
-2.190 |
[.035] |
||
Per Capita INCOME |
-3.10E-04 |
-2.381 |
[.023] |
||
Hausman test of H0: RE vs. FE: CHISQ(2) = 12.251, P-value = [.0022]
Now consider the relationship between Infant Mortality and the Rule of
Law variable.
TABLE 7: Dependent variable: RULE OF LAW, O
= 105, C = 69, T = 2, P = 36,
where O = # Observations, C = # Countries, T = Maximum #
of Time Periods,
P = # of
Paired observations (number
of countries with both time periods observed)
TABLE 7a. BETWEEN COUNTRY Estimates (OLS on Country means, 69 Observations):
Mean dependent variable |
3.047 |
R-Squared |
0.615 |
|
Standard Error Regression |
1.851 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.604 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
|
Constant |
2.440 |
2.998 |
[.004] |
|
Infant Mortality (fitted) |
-9.22E-03 |
-1.173 |
[.245] |
|
Per capita INCOME |
2.36E-04 |
3.495 |
[.001] |
TABLE 7b.
WITHIN COUNTRY Estimates (Fixed
Effects, 105 Observations):
Mean dependent variable |
3.005 |
R-Squared |
0.979 |
|
Standard Error Regression |
1.917 |
Adjusted R-Squared |
0.935 |
|
Durbin-Watson Statistic |
2.000 |
[1.000] |
||
Variable |
Coefficient |
T-statistic |
P-value |
|
Constant i |
– |
– |
– |
|
Infant Mortality (fitted) |
-1.39E-02 |
-2.241 |
[.032] |
|
Per Capita INCOME |
-2.21E-04 |
-2.562 |
[.015] |
Hausman test of H0: RE vs. FE: CHISQ(2) =
25.660, P-value = [.0000]
Similar to the elasticity comparisons of Life
Expectancy and Income (Table 5), we can do a computation with Infant Mortality,
Income, and their effects on Transparency and Rule of Law. The sample means for
these variables are 61.67 (per thousand births), $5,016, 3.371, and 3.005, respectively. Using the coefficients in Tables 6b and 7b,
this leads to the following elasticities:
Table 8: infant mortality versus Income – Effects on Transparency
and Rule of Law
Effects of |
Coefficient |
Elasticity |
Infant
Mortality on Transparency |
-2.00E-02 |
-0.366 |
Income on Transparency |
-3.10E-04 |
-0.461 |
|
||
Infant
Mortality on Rule of Law |
-1.39E-02 |
-0.285 |
Income on Rule of Law |
-2.21E-04 |
-0.369 |
The signs on Infant Mortality and Income are in
the same direction: both are bads from the point of view of Transparency and the
Rule of Law. We see that their
elasticities are also comparable, with Income somewhat more “corrupting” than
Infant Mortality.
As a final point on our empirical work, we should
note that we performed similar estimates on the public goods of Education (years
of schooling) and income Inequality (the Gini coefficient, as a public
"bad" serving as proxy for lack of income security). The results on Inequality were very far from
statistical significance. Tests on our
Education variables, however, were just short of statistical significance, and
all of the same sign as the tests on our Health variables. These results will not be presented here; the
variables themselves are given in the Appendix.
4. Summary and Conclusions
The argument of this paper is that transparency
is a public good created largely by capital in social networks, rather than by
direct governmental production alone.
This hypothesis is supported by within-country estimates, based on
extensive panel data, demonstrating a determining
influence of health care upon transparency, so that its greater provision
encourages greater transparency and rule of law. This does not in any way deny the reverse
causality established by earlier literature, i.e., that greater
transparency and rule of law also encourage better health care.
Thus, there is a positive determining influence
for health care upon corruption, at least in the structural sense of
exogeneity. But there still may be no
very direct causal link: both improvements might be caused by some third
term. So how might better public health
improve transparency and the rule of law?
There is evidence that good health is highly associated with strong
community and family networks (Castles 1994, Cox et al. 1997). Health is a
good most people prize highly, so that much leisure time and disposable income
are invested in promoting it. The same
social networks that promote good health may also promote greater long-term
relationships of trust, which is the social basis of transparency and the rule
of law.
Mutual aid delivered through community health
care may also allow developing countries to leverage traditional forms of
social capital used to promote honesty and transparency. The example of Grameen Bank has been widely
noted, and is built upon the informal ROSCA networks found throughout the
developing world (Beaseley et al.
1993). Literacy and numeracy can only aid such leverage. Another example may be the use of modern
communication technologies to connect village school programs with university programs,
such as that of the University of South Africa (UNISA), which has been involved
in distance education since 1946, and is also used to promote public health. It
is now using the Internet to reach out to the world and in the year 2000 had
over 8000 students outside
The findings of this paper support of a policy
that not only strives to improve the level of basic public goods like education
and health, but also attempts to complement and strengthen the social networks
responsible for their provision in traditional societies. These traditional values and networks in
developing countries now appear, rather than standing as the great roadblocks
to transparency and capital investment, as their most secure foundation
(Beasley et al. 1993, De Soto 2000).
A program of strengthening these social networks
and allying them with the market becomes all the more important in light of the
within-country evidence in Easterly (1999) that corruption is encouraged by
income growth. Capitalist modernization
has been based largely upon dismantling and degrading traditional values and
networks. To the extent it has been so
based, it has delayed the establishment of transparent institutions, and thus
hindered its own development.
Whenever within-country effects of income growth
are qualitatively at odds with the cross-sectional evidence, as in Easterly
(1999) and the present paper, there are arguments that the cross-sectional
evidence remains more fundamental.
Recall that our fixed effects estimates explain most of the between
country differences by individual country differences, and that the time period
of change is typically very short: in the case of this paper, just one decade.
It is uncertain, therefore, whether these estimates really capture the most of
the socioeconomic changes wrought by sustained income growth. It may be that the “corruption enhancing”
effects of growth and poor health care are strictly short-term. Easterly's results would become a mild
qualification to the prevailing pro-growth optimism: the negative backwash of
growth would then be only a minor friction on the upwardly spiraling “virtuous
circle” of income growth.
There are many more questions than can be answered,
or even seriously posed, by a paper like this.
A closing thought, however, on why social networks should not be
ignored: modern capitalism in
REFERENCES
Axelrod, Robert & Michael Cohen (2000), Harnessing Complexity: Organizational
Implications of a Scientific Frontier,
Barro,
Robert (1997), Determinants of Economic
Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study,
Besley, Timothy, Stephen Coate & Glenn Loury
(1993), “The Economics of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations,” American
Economic Review, September 83(4),
pp.792– 810.
Burki,
Shahi & Guillermo Perry (1998), Beyond
the
"Viewpoints,"
Castles,
Ian (1994), How Australians Use Their
Time, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Catalog No. 4153.0,
Charap,
Joshua & Christian Harm (1999), “Institutionalized Corruption and the
Council
of
Cox,
Donald, Emmanuel Jimenez & Wlodek Okrasa (1997), "Family Safety Nets
and Economic Transition: Worker Households in
Easterly, William (1999), "Life During Growth: A Compendium of Political, Social and Environmental Indicators of What Gets Better and What Gets Worse from Low to High Income," Journal of Economic Growth 4(3), September, pp. 239-276.
Easterly,
William and Ross Levine (1997), "
Eliot,
Kimberly Ann, ed. (1997), Corruption and
the Global Economy,
Engle, Robert F. and David F. Hendry (1983), "Exogeneity," Econometrica, 51(2), March: 277-304.
Frank, Robert H. & Tibor Scitovsky (1992), The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction,
Friedman,
Gupta, Sanjeev, Hamid Davoodi & Erwin Tiongson (2000), "Corruption and the Provision of Health Care and Education Services," IMF Working Paper, Fiscal Affairs Department, www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=3652.0
Gupta, Sanjeev, Hamid Davoodi & Rosa Alonso-Terme (1998), "Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty?," IMF Working Paper, Fiscal Affairs Department, www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=2629.0
Heal, Geoffrey & P.S. DasGupta (1980), Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources,
Hines, Jr., James R. (1995) “Forbidden Payment: Foreign Bribery and American Business After
1977,” NBER Working Paper 5266.
Inter-American Convention Against Corruption
(1997) OEA/Ser. K/XXXIV.1, CICOR/doc. 14/96 rev. 2 (
Lopez, Ramon & Siddhartha Mitra (2000) "Corruption, Pollution,
and the Kuznets Environment Curve," Journal of Environmental
Economics and Management 40, 137-150.
Maoro, Paolo (1995), “Corruption and Growth,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(3): 681-712.
___________
(1997), “The Effects of Corruption on Growth, Investment, and Government
Expenditure: A Cross-Country Analysis,”
in Kimberly, Ann Elliott, ed., Corruption
and the Global Economy,
OECD
(1998) Convention on Combating Bribery of
Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions,
OECD/DAFFE/IME/BR(97)16/FINAL (
Olson,
Mancur (2000), Power and Prosperity:
Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships,
Organization
of African Unity (2001), “Draft OAU Convention on Combating Corruption,” Expt/Draft/OAU/Conv/Comb/Corruption (I).
Pritchett, Lant & Larry Summers (1996), “Wealthier Is Healthier,” Journal of Human Resources, 31(4): pp. 841-868.
Polanyi, Karl (1962), The Great Transformation,
Reisen, Helmut, and Marcelo Soto (2001) "Which Types of Capital Inflows Foster Country Growth?" International Finance, 4(1).
Rose-Ackerman,
Susan (1999), Corruption and Government:
Causes, Consequences and Reform,
___________________
(1997) “The Political Economy of Corruption,” in Kimberly, Ann Elliott, ed., Corruption and the Global Economy,
___________________
(1978) Corruption: A Study in Political
Economy,
Rosser,
J. Barkley, Jr. & Marina Rosser (1999), "The New Traditional Economy: A New Perspective
for Comparative Economics?" International Journal of Social Economics,
26(6) pp. 763-778.
Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Andrew Warner (1997)
“Fundamental Sources of Long-run Growth,” American Economic Review, Papers
and Proceedings, 87, No. 2:
184-88, May.
Schroth,
Peter W. (2002a), "43 Years of Transnational Law Against Corruption (of
Which 40 in the United States Alone)", in David Birch & Jonathan
Batten, eds., Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility in the New
Millennium: Proceedings of the 2001
Conference, Burwood, VIC,
_______________ (2002b), "The United States
and the International Bribery Conventions," American Journal of Comparative Law, 50(supp.) pp.593-622.
_______________ (2002c), “Why Have the Corruption
Treaties’ Provisions on Accounting and Control Failed to Overcome the Business
Judgment Rule?,”
_______________ (2003), "Fostering Informed and Responsible Management: The Failure of the Corruption Treaties: Provisions on Accounting and Control," Research in International Business and Finance,17, pages ___-___ (forthcoming).
Schroth, Peter W. & Preeti Sharma (2002)
"Fighting Corruption in
Stodder, James (1995) "The Evolution of
Complexity in primitive Exchange,"
Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 20 (in two parts):
"Theory," Issue 1, February, pp. 1-31 and "Empirical
Tests," Issue 2, April, pp. 190-210.
____________ (1993) "Ex-Communist Economics:
the Logic of Capital Reform,"
Wei,
Shang-Jin (1997) "Why is Corruption So
Much More Taxing Than Tax? Arbitrariness Kills," NBER Working Paper No. w6255.
____________ (2000) “How Taxing Is Corruption on International Investors?” Review of Economics & Statistics, 82(1).
Appendix (A): Country Data in the Easterly Data Set, Basic
Indicators
The Data in this table are the basic ones used in this study; the instrumental variables used to derive the fitted estimates can be downloaded by going to www.worldbank.org/research/peg/, then clicking on the link for Working Paper Number 17. Below there are C = 106 Countries, P = 76 with T = 2 time period observations, and S = 30 with only one observation. O = 182 observations in all. The variable definitions are as follows:
Table A1: Data Sources
VARIABLE |
Data
Sources |
|
NAME |
Name of Country |
|
YEAR |
Year of
Observation |
|
TRANSP |
Transparency |
IRIS Int'l
Country Risk data (Note: This variable is labeled 'Corruption' in the
Easterly Data, even though it is increasing as corruption decreases. We have chosen 'Transparency' as less
confusing. |
RULELAW |
Rule of law |
IRIS Int'l
Country Risk data |
INCOME-PC |
Income per
capita |
Summers, R.
& A. Heston. 1991. "The Penn World Table (Mark 5): an expanded set
of international comparisons, 1950-88." Quarterly Journal of Economics 106 (2): 327-68 (with 1993 on line
update from NBER). |
NSMORT |
Mortality - Infant |
WRI (World Resources, Inc.) |
NSSCHL |
Average
schooling years in the total population over age 25 |
Barro-Lee |
NSLIFEX |
Life expectancy
at age zero |
Barro-Lee |
GINIDC |
Gini coefficient
(decade avg) |
Gini coefficient
(decade avg) |
In the table below, names are in bold if they occur without a second period observation:
Table B1: Basic Data
NAME |
YEAR |
TRANSP |
RULELAW |
INCOME-PC |
NSMORT |
NSSCHL |
NSLIFEX |
GINIDC |
|
1980 |
2 |
2 |
$2,758 |
112 |
1.868 |
58.4 |
38.73 |
|
1990 |
4 |
2 |
2,777 |
74 |
2.394 |
61.5 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
2 |
6,506 |
41 |
6.63 |
69.3 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
4,706 |
32 |
6.676 |
70.2 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
12,520 |
13 |
10.076 |
74.5 |
34.267 |
|
1990 |
5 |
6 |
14,445 |
9 |
10.241 |
75.8 |
41.72 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
10,509 |
17 |
6.224 |
72.7 |
28.669 |
|
1990 |
5 |
6 |
12,695 |
9 |
6.642 |
73.7 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
0 |
1 |
1,085 |
137 |
1.681 |
47.9 |
35.723 |
|
1990 |
0 |
1 |
1,390 |
119 |
1.974 |
49.9 |
28.27 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
11,109 |
14 |
8.794 |
73.2 |
24.461 |
|
1990 |
5 |
6 |
13,232 |
9 |
9.152 |
74.3 |
26.968 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
1,989 |
131 |
3.971 |
49.9 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
1,658 |
98 |
4.285 |
52.2 |
42.04 |
|
1980 |
4 |
4 |
4,303 |
79 |
2.976 |
62.8 |
53.858 |
|
1990 |
4 |
4 |
4,042 |
63 |
3.486 |
64.3 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
3 |
5 |
6,203 |
14 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
27.797 |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
511 |
126 |
#N/A |
46.4 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
1,194 |
102 |
1.758 |
53 |
49 |
|
1990 |
3 |
3 |
1,226 |
74 |
2.23 |
55.1 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
14,133 |
12 |
10.158 |
74.7 |
31.569 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
17,173 |
7 |
10.369 |
76.2 |
30.52 |
|
1980 |
4 |
5 |
3,892 |
47 |
5.986 |
69.5 |
54.607 |
|
1990 |
3 |
4 |
4,338 |
18 |
6.45 |
71.3 |
52.35 |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
1,324 |
32 |
#N/A |
68.8 |
36.033 |
|
1980 |
3 |
2 |
2,946 |
59 |
4.233 |
63.1 |
47.9 |
|
1990 |
3 |
1 |
3,300 |
40 |
4.533 |
65 |
50.023 |
|
1990 |
3 |
2 |
2,211 |
84 |
3.143 |
57.7 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
5 |
4 |
3,717 |
30 |
4.814 |
71.7 |
44.42 |
|
1990 |
5 |
4 |
3,499 |
16 |
5.333 |
73.4 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
3 |
2.5 |
1,213 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
51.7 |
#N/A |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NAME |
YEAR |
TRANSP |
RULELAW |
INCOME-PC |
NSMORT |
NSSCHL |
NSLIFEX |
GINIDC |
|
1990 |
3 |
4 |
8,368 |
11 |
7.128 |
75.4 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
4,095 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
24.557 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
11,342 |
9 |
10.139 |
74.1 |
26.554 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
13,909 |
8 |
10.331 |
74.9 |
29.063 |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
2,343 |
#N/A |
3.709 |
63.3 |
47.608 |
|
1990 |
3 |
3 |
2,166 |
#N/A |
4.177 |
65.2 |
49 |
|
1980 |
4 |
4 |
3,238 |
82 |
5.401 |
63.1 |
44.53 |
|
1990 |
3 |
4 |
2,755 |
63 |
5.584 |
65 |
43 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
1,645 |
131 |
#N/A |
57.1 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
1,912 |
65 |
#N/A |
59.6 |
32 |
|
1980 |
2 |
1 |
2,014 |
87 |
3.283 |
57.3 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
1,824 |
59 |
3.574 |
60.2 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
10,851 |
9 |
9.609 |
73.2 |
25.545 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
14,059 |
6 |
9.491 |
75 |
23.549 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
11,756 |
11 |
5.968 |
74.9 |
32.05 |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
13,904 |
8 |
6.523 |
76.6 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
2 |
4,797 |
122 |
#N/A |
48.4 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
3,958 |
103 |
#N/A |
51.1 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
3 |
3 |
799 |
143 |
0.837 |
42.4 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
11,920 |
#N/A |
8.457 |
73.2 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
5 |
6 |
14,341 |
#N/A |
8.544 |
74.3 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
976 |
103 |
2.382 |
51.6 |
36.32 |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
902 |
90 |
3.216 |
53.2 |
33.94 |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
5,901 |
25 |
6.556 |
74.3 |
35.738 |
|
1990 |
5 |
3 |
6,768 |
11 |
6.727 |
75.9 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
1 |
2,574 |
82 |
2.342 |
58 |
58.66 |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
2,127 |
59 |
2.591 |
60.8 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
767 |
145 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
689 |
151 |
0.56 |
38.7 |
56.12 |
|
1980 |
1 |
0 |
1,927 |
67 |
4.603 |
65.3 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
1 |
1 |
1,094 |
56 |
5.109 |
65.9 |
40.22 |
|
1980 |
0 |
0 |
1,033 |
121 |
1.455 |
51.9 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
1 |
1,519 |
90 |
2.698 |
60.2 |
54.98 |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
1,377 |
68 |
3.561 |
63.2 |
53.726 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
8,719 |
#N/A |
6.734 |
74.1 |
41.493 |
|
1990 |
5 |
4 |
14,849 |
#N/A |
7.511 |
75.8 |
45 |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
5,357 |
17 |
10.745 |
69.9 |
27.874 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
11,566 |
9 |
7.398 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
13,362 |
6 |
7.889 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
882 |
129 |
2.715 |
53.7 |
31.428 |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
1,264 |
96 |
3.046 |
56.7 |
31.628 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
1,281 |
105 |
3.086 |
54.7 |
33.957 |
|
1990 |
0 |
2 |
1,974 |
75 |
3.75 |
58.5 |
34.592 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
3,434 |
#N/A |
2.323 |
60.6 |
42.9 |
|
1990 |
3 |
1 |
3,392 |
#N/A |
3.281 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
1 |
7,242 |
84 |
2.456 |
62.4 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
5 |
6,823 |
15 |
7.605 |
72.6 |
35.804 |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
9,274 |
8 |
8.008 |
73.5 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
5 |
1 |
7,895 |
18 |
9.135 |
72.8 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
5 |
1 |
9,298 |
11 |
9.41 |
75 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
5 |
10,323 |
18 |
5.83 |
74.7 |
31.853 |
|
1990 |
4 |
5 |
12,488 |
10 |
6.276 |
76.3 |
28.302 |
|
1980 |
2 |
1 |
2,362 |
26 |
3.602 |
71.3 |
50.73 |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
2,545 |
17 |
4.162 |
73.5 |
39.825 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
10,072 |
9 |
8.166 |
76 |
35.2 |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
14,331 |
5 |
8.458 |
77.3 |
35 |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
3,384 |
65 |
2.933 |
62.7 |
36.968 |
|
1990 |
3 |
2 |
2,919 |
44 |
4.308 |
65 |
40.66 |
|
1980 |
3 |
2 |
911 |
88 |
2.444 |
54.9 |
57.3 |
|
1990 |
3 |
3 |
911 |
72 |
3.093 |
57.1 |
54.39 |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
3,093 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
35.335 |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
6,673 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
20,018 |
34 |
4.294 |
70.8 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
927 |
167 |
1.345 |
51.5 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
16,280 |
9 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
4 |
3.5 |
675 |
120 |
#N/A |
52.7 |
43.44 |
|
1980 |
5 |
1 |
554 |
177 |
2.271 |
43.7 |
58.3 |
|
1990 |
4 |
2 |
519 |
149 |
2.577 |
45.4 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
4 |
3,799 |
34 |
4.489 |
66.9 |
48.168 |
NAME |
YEAR |
TRANSP |
RULELAW |
INCOME-PC |
NSMORT |
NSSCHL |
NSLIFEX |
GINIDC |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
5,124 |
17 |
5.361 |
68.9 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
531 |
169 |
0.819 |
46.3 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
4 |
6,054 |
58 |
3.512 |
66.6 |
52.453 |
|
1990 |
3 |
3 |
5,827 |
41 |
4.418 |
68.1 |
50.31 |
|
1990 |
4 |
3 |
1,842 |
68 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
1,941 |
110 |
#N/A |
57.3 |
43.763 |
|
1990 |
3 |
2 |
2,151 |
82 |
#N/A |
59.8 |
39.2 |
|
1990 |
4 |
2 |
760 |
155 |
1.077 |
47 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
3 |
505 |
114 |
1.464 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
3 |
2 |
2,854 |
80 |
#N/A |
#N/A |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
11,284 |
10 |
8.199 |
75.7 |
29.17 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
13,029 |
9 |
8.572 |
76.5 |
29.163 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
10,362 |
14 |
12.141 |
73.2 |
35.314 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
11,513 |
11 |
12.039 |
74.4 |
40.21 |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
1,853 |
97 |
2.735 |
58.4 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
5 |
2 |
1,294 |
71 |
3.776 |
61.9 |
50.32 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
1,438 |
124 |
#N/A |
47.7 |
36.26 |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
995 |
105 |
#N/A |
50.1 |
39.31 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
12,141 |
9 |
10.316 |
75.7 |
27.036 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
14,902 |
8 |
10.382 |
76.5 |
28.906 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
1,110 |
130 |
1.737 |
53 |
33.586 |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
1,394 |
109 |
1.92 |
55.5 |
31.15 |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
3,392 |
32 |
5.982 |
70.3 |
51.97 |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
2,888 |
23 |
6.3 |
71.6 |
#N/A |
PAPUA NEW |
1990 |
3 |
3 |
1,425 |
59 |
1.654 |
53.2 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
2,534 |
53 |
4.627 |
66.3 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
0 |
2 |
2,128 |
49 |
4.704 |
66.7 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
2 |
2,875 |
105 |
5.442 |
58 |
45.023 |
|
1990 |
3 |
1 |
2,188 |
88 |
5.786 |
60.3 |
41.935 |
|
1980 |
0 |
1 |
1,879 |
62 |
6 |
61 |
44.027 |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
1,763 |
45 |
6.481 |
62.8 |
45 |
|
1990 |
5 |
4 |
3,820 |
17 |
8.412 |
71.2 |
26.685 |
|
1980 |
3 |
6 |
4,982 |
30 |
3.23 |
71.4 |
35.353 |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
7,478 |
14 |
3.827 |
72.9 |
34.442 |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
13,750 |
75 |
#N/A |
59.7 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
1,134 |
112 |
1.989 |
45.2 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
3 |
2 |
1,145 |
87 |
2.393 |
46.7 |
54.12 |
SIERRA LEONE |
1990 |
2 |
3 |
901 |
154 |
1.721 |
40.3 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
7,053 |
13 |
3.691 |
71.5 |
42.41 |
|
1990 |
4 |
5 |
11,710 |
8 |
4.553 |
72.5 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
5 |
1 |
3,248 |
58 |
4.955 |
59.4 |
62.3 |
|
1980 |
6 |
5 |
7,390 |
16 |
5.152 |
74.9 |
26.378 |
|
1990 |
4 |
4 |
9,583 |
8 |
5.585 |
76.3 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
2 |
1,635 |
44 |
5.183 |
68 |
43.868 |
|
1990 |
3 |
0 |
2,096 |
28 |
5.371 |
69.8 |
30.1 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
866 |
131 |
0.64 |
46.7 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
1 |
757 |
108 |
0.909 |
49 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
12,456 |
8 |
9.469 |
75.9 |
30.287 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
14,762 |
6 |
9.447 |
76.4 |
28.877 |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
14,301 |
10 |
9.666 |
75.8 |
34.313 |
|
1990 |
6 |
6 |
16,505 |
7 |
9.088 |
76.7 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
4,467 |
#N/A |
3.106 |
61.6 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
3,897 |
#N/A |
3.987 |
64 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
5 |
6 |
4,459 |
#N/A |
6.365 |
72.4 |
29.442 |
|
1990 |
4 |
5 |
8,063 |
#N/A |
6.999 |
72.8 |
30.139 |
|
1980 |
1 |
3 |
480 |
125 |
2.425 |
49.7 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
4 |
3 |
2,178 |
56 |
3.765 |
62.2 |
47.037 |
|
1990 |
3 |
4 |
3,580 |
32 |
5.081 |
63.8 |
50.264 |
|
1980 |
2 |
2 |
731 |
117 |
1.623 |
49.5 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
641 |
94 |
2.132 |
52 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
4 |
11,262 |
#N/A |
6.599 |
68.2 |
41.72 |
|
1990 |
3 |
4 |
7,764 |
#N/A |
6.503 |
69.4 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
2,527 |
88 |
1.918 |
61.9 |
43.143 |
|
1990 |
3 |
2 |
2,910 |
49 |
2.478 |
64.4 |
40.493 |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
2,874 |
120 |
2.616 |
61 |
43.945 |
|
1990 |
2 |
2 |
3,741 |
68 |
3.294 |
63.1 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
534 |
114 |
1.641 |
46 |
33 |
|
1990 |
3 |
1 |
554 |
108 |
1.917 |
47.3 |
40.78 |
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES |
1980 |
3 |
1 |
31,969 |
38 |
#N/A |
68.2 |
#N/A |
NAME |
YEAR |
TRANSP |
RULELAW |
INCOME-PC |
NSMORT |
NSSCHL |
NSLIFEX |
GINIDC |
|
1980 |
6 |
6 |
10,167 |
14 |
8.345 |
73.8 |
29.621 |
|
1990 |
5 |
5 |
13,217 |
9 |
8.648 |
74.7 |
32.35 |
UNITED STATES |
1980 |
6 |
6 |
15,295 |
14 |
11.888 |
73.7 |
36.878 |
UNITED STATES |
1990 |
5 |
6 |
18,054 |
10 |
11.787 |
74.9 |
37.158 |
|
1980 |
3 |
3 |
5,091 |
42 |
5.8 |
70.1 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
3 |
3 |
4,602 |
24 |
6.454 |
70.8 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
2 |
3 |
7,401 |
43 |
4.93 |
68.5 |
42.965 |
|
1990 |
3 |
4 |
6,055 |
36 |
5.368 |
69.6 |
49.12 |
|
1980 |
1 |
1 |
476 |
115 |
1.738 |
49.2 |
#N/A |
|
1980 |
1 |
3 |
971 |
94 |
3.459 |
50.1 |
#N/A |
|
1990 |
2 |
1.5 |
689 |
86 |
4.349 |
52.1 |
43.51 |
|
1980 |
3 |
1 |
1,206 |
86 |
2.395 |
55 |
#N/A |
It is noteworthy that all examples of countries with scores of 5 or 6 for both Transparency and Rule of Law were from the countries of North-West or Central Europe or peopled largely by their immigrants (e.g., Australia), with the following exceptions: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.
Appendix (B): Examining the Regression Outliers
It is often instructive to check which observations the regressions do not able handle particularly well. This was done here, and the inconsistencies exhibit a rather striking consistency of their own. All of the countries with absolute error terms greater than 0.5 (on a 7 point scale) are either "Latin" in their culture or colonial legacy, or they are African. We have no theories on the reasons behind this pattern, but it is certainly interesting.
Table
B1: Transparency Regressed on Life
Expectancy |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Estimated |
Standard |
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
Error |
t-statistic |
P-value |
Constant
i |
- |
- |
- |
|
Income-PC |
-3.63E-04 |
1.37E-04 |
-2.65416 |
[.012] |
LifeEx
(fitted) |
0.109551 |
0.047682 |
2.29755 |
[.028] |
The following table shows those regressions where the estimated Transparency differed from the Observed by more than 0.5 points.
Table B2: Outliers for Regression of Transparency on Life Expectancy
|
|
Coefficient |
Variable |
Variable |
Estim. |
Observ. |
Estim. minus |
Bias |
Year |
Country |
Constant |
Income-PC |
LifeEx (fitted) |
Transp. |
Transp. |
Observ. Transp. |
Estim. |
1980 |
|
-1.62245 |
3238 |
55.3 |
3.26 |
4.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1990 |
|
-1.62245 |
2755 |
58.0 |
3.74 |
3.0 |
0.7 |
over |
1980 |
|
-3.23589 |
976 |
52.7 |
2.19 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
over |
1990 |
|
-3.23589 |
902 |
58.2 |
2.81 |
4.0 |
-1.2 |
under |
1980 |
|
-0.63614 |
10323 |
75.0 |
3.84 |
3.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1990 |
|
-0.63614 |
12488 |
76.0 |
3.16 |
4.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1980 |
|
-3.09236 |
3392 |
58.5 |
2.09 |
3.0 |
-0.9 |
under |
1990 |
|
-3.09236 |
2888 |
64.3 |
2.91 |
2.0 |
0.9 |
over |
1980 |
|
-4.37733 |
2534 |
65.5 |
1.88 |
3.0 |
-1.1 |
under |
1990 |
|
-4.37733 |
2128 |
57.2 |
1.12 |
0.0 |
1.1 |
over |
1980 |
|
-5.01573 |
1879 |
61.1 |
1.00 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
over |
1990 |
|
-5.01573 |
1763 |
60.7 |
1.00 |
2.0 |
-1.0 |
under |
1980 |
|
0.16239 |
7390 |
70.7 |
5.23 |
6.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1990 |
|
0.16239 |
9583 |
73.8 |
4.77 |
4.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1980 |
|
-3.73478 |
866 |
51.1 |
1.55 |
1.0 |
0.6 |
over |
1990 |
|
-3.73478 |
757 |
49.8 |
1.45 |
2.0 |
-0.6 |
under |
1980 |
|
-3.68546 |
534 |
50.0 |
1.59 |
1.0 |
0.6 |
over |
1990 |
|
-3.68546 |
554 |
57.4 |
2.41 |
3.0 |
-0.6 |
under |
1980 |
|
-4.57559 |
971 |
59.6 |
1.60 |
1.0 |
0.6 |
over |
1990 |
|
-4.57559 |
689 |
56.8 |
1.40 |
2.0 |
-0.6 |
under |
We can also consider the direction of change in Transparency, according to our regressions. For each pair of observations on a country here, we have bolded the larger of the two estimates and observations on the dependent variable. When the bolded values are in the same year, the regression correctly predicts the direction of change.
We will see very much the same pattern of outliers when we use Child Mortality variable, rather than Life Expectancy, as the dependent variable.
Table
B3: Transparency Regressed on Child Mortality |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Estimated |
Standard |
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
Error |
t-statistic |
P-value |
Constant
i |
- |
|
- |
- |
Income-PC |
-3.10E-04 |
1.30E-04 |
-2.38085 |
[.023] |
Child.Mort.
(fitted) |
-0.020462 |
9.34E-03 |
-2.18983 |
[.035] |
Table B4: Outliers for Regression of Transparency on Child Mortality
|
|
Coefficient |
Variable |
Variable |
Estimate |
Observ |
Estim. minus |
Bias of |
Year |
Country |
Constant |
Income-PC |
Mortality (fitted) |
Transp. |
Transp. |
Observ. Transp. |
Estimate |
1980 |
|
6.29551 |
3238 |
99.4 |
3.26 |
4.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1990 |
|
6.29551 |
2755 |
83.2 |
3.74 |
3.0 |
0.7 |
over |
1980 |
|
4.68724 |
976 |
107.0 |
2.20 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
over |
1990 |
|
4.68724 |
902 |
78.4 |
2.80 |
4.0 |
-1.2 |
under |
1980 |
|
7.19094 |
10323 |
10.5 |
3.78 |
3.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1990 |
|
7.19094 |
12488 |
5.1 |
3.22 |
4.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1980 |
|
4.83749 |
3392 |
82.4 |
2.10 |
3.0 |
-0.9 |
under |
1990 |
|
4.83749 |
2888 |
51.1 |
2.90 |
2.0 |
0.9 |
over |
1980 |
|
3.58555 |
2534 |
46.7 |
1.84 |
3.0 |
-1.2 |
under |
1990 |
|
3.58555 |
2128 |
86.6 |
1.16 |
0.0 |
1.2 |
over |
1980 |
|
2.93285 |
1879 |
66.0 |
1.00 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
over |
1990 |
|
2.93285 |
1763 |
67.8 |
1.00 |
2.0 |
-1.0 |
under |
1980 |
|
8.04508 |
7390 |
27.5 |
5.19 |
6.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1990 |
|
8.04508 |
9583 |
13.3 |
4.81 |
4.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1980 |
|
4.17514 |
866 |
116.4 |
1.53 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
over |
1990 |
|
4.17514 |
757 |
120.5 |
1.47 |
2.0 |
-0.5 |
under |
1980 |
|
4.22259 |
534 |
119.6 |
1.61 |
1.0 |
0.6 |
over |
1990 |
|
4.22259 |
554 |
81.1 |
2.39 |
3.0 |
-0.6 |
under |
1980 |
|
3.34266 |
971 |
70.7 |
1.60 |
1.0 |
0.6 |
over |
1990 |
|
3.34266 |
689 |
84.3 |
1.40 |
2.0 |
-0.6 |
under |
Note that these results for Rule of Law are almost identical to those for Transparency. The Error terms (in the second to last column) are identical to the first decimal place in every case. There-fore the same pattern holds, of over-estimating the Transparency of the Latin countries, while under-estimating that of the African countries shown.
Next we turn to the regressions for Rule of Law.
Table
B5: Rule Law Regressed on Life Expectancy |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Estimated |
Standard |
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
Error |
t-statistic |
P-value |
Constant
i |
- |
|
- |
- |
Income-PC |
7.40E-02 |
3.22E-02 |
2.30E+00 |
[.027] |
LifeEx
(fitted) |
-2.59E-04 |
9.21E-05 |
-2.811 |
[.008] |
Table B6: Outliers for Regression of Rule of Law on Life Expectancy
|
|
Coefficient |
Variable |
Variable |
Estimated |
Observed |
Estim. minus |
Bias of |
Year |
Country |
Constant |
Income-PC |
LifeEx (fitted) |
Rule Law |
Rule Law |
Obs. Rule Law |
Estimate |
1980 |
|
-1.86147 |
976 |
52.7 |
1.79 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1990 |
|
-1.86147 |
902 |
58.2 |
2.21 |
3.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1980 |
|
-2.43742 |
2534 |
65.5 |
1.75 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1990 |
|
-2.43742 |
2128 |
57.2 |
1.25 |
2.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1990 |
|
-2.11651 |
2875 |
56.5 |
1.32 |
2.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1980 |
|
-2.11651 |
2188 |
59.0 |
1.68 |
1.0 |
0.7 |
over |
1990 |
|
-1.84248 |
971 |
59.6 |
2.32 |
3.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1990 |
|
-1.84248 |
689 |
56.8 |
2.18 |
1.5 |
0.7 |
over |
Once again, all the outliers are Latin or African. A similar pattern will be seen in the regressions using Child Mortality.
Table
B7: Transparency Regressed on Child Mortality |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Estimated |
Standard |
|
|
Variable |
Coefficient |
Error |
t-statistic |
P-value |
Constant
i |
- |
|
- |
- |
Income-PC |
-3.10E-04 |
1.30E-04 |
-2.38085 |
[.023] |
Child.Mort.
(fitted) |
-0.020462 |
9.34E-03 |
-2.18983 |
[.035] |
Table B8: Outliers for Regression of Rule of Law on Child Mortality
|
|
Coefficient |
Variable |
Variable |
Estimated |
Observed |
Estim. minus |
Bias of |
Year |
Country |
Constant |
Income-PC |
Child Mortality (fitted) |
Rule Law |
Rule Law |
Observ. Rule Law |
Estimate |
1980 |
|
3.49653 |
976 |
107.0 |
1.79 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
over |
1990 |
|
3.49653 |
902 |
78.4 |
2.21 |
3.0 |
-0.8 |
under |
1980 |
|
2.94254 |
2534 |
46.7 |
1.73 |
1.0 |
0.7 |
over |
1990 |
|
2.94254 |
2128 |
86.6 |
1.27 |
2.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1990 |
|
3.23503 |
2875 |
92.0 |
1.32 |
2.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1980 |
|
3.23503 |
2188 |
77.0 |
1.68 |
1.0 |
0.7 |
over |
1990 |
|
3.51119 |
971 |
70.7 |
2.31 |
3.0 |
-0.7 |
under |
1990 |
|
3.51119 |
689 |
84.3 |
2.19 |
1.5 |
0.7 |
over |
Once again, the pattern of error terms is almost identical
in Tables B6 and B8, with nearly identical terms in the second to last column
-- except in the case of
* Lally School of Management and Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 275 Windsor Street, Hartford, Connecticut 06120-2991, USA. Professor Stodder can be reached at +1 860 548-7860 or Stodder@rh.edu. Professor Schroth can be reached at +1 860 548-7845 or Schroth@rh.edu.
[1] The unpredictability of chaotic corruption may actually be worse for private businesses than its rate of extraction, which is already too high to be revenue maximizing. This is the conclusion of an empirical study by Wei (1997).
[2] The current World Bank website for Micro and SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) Financing is http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/html/FinancialSectorWeb.nsf/SearchGeneral?openform&Rural+and+Microfinance/SMEs&Links. Although the URL may change, the World Bank site, www.worldbank.org, is itself easily searchable.
[3] However, Rose-Ackerman (1997, p.
31) points out that “Some countries alleged to be corrupt have experienced high
levels of economic growth. In
[4] The Inter-American Convention Against Corruption entered into force in 1997.
[5] The OECD's Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions entered into force in 1999.
[6] The Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption
entered into force on
[7] While they do represent
significant progress, the OAS and OECD Conventions and the various national
implementing laws fall short of the laws already in force decades ago in the
[8] For example, subsection 3(1) provides, “A person is guilty of an offence if he or she, directly or indirectly, corruptly accepts or agrees to accept for himself or herself or for any other person any gratification as an inducement to do or not to do anything or as a reward for having done or not having done anything.” Subsection 4(1) is similar, with the substitution of “gives or agrees to give” and words such as “corruptly” and “gratification” are defined in extremely broad terms. Several provisions of the bill seem to invite constitutional challenge as infringements of the rights of the accused, setting the stage for a confrontation between the world’s strongest anti-bribery law and the world’s most liberal bill of rights.
[9] The well known problem of corruption of the
“transitional” economies within the former
[10] Here transparency (where the high-scoring countries are the least corrupt) is coded by the IRIS International Country Risk data, and income is in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms from the Penn World Tables. (Easterly's data set and details on all variables used in this paper are available at the World Bank working paper website, www.worldbank.org/research/peg/, Working Paper Number 17.)
[11] For a counter-argument that cross-sectional tests may be more important – see conclusions in the final section.
[12] Enrollment
figures available at www.unisa.ac.za/about/gen_stats.html .