Measuring Corruption in Business Surveys
Author: Frédéric Lesné
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe topic of this doctoral thesis is corruption measurement. Its main contributions to economic research are a reflection on the current practice of producing corruption indicators using business survey data, and suggesting innovative approaches to improve the quality of those indicators. This thesis is composed of three Chapters. The first Chapter investigates how asking firm owners and managers to estimate the magnitude of bribery as a percentage of their turnover or in monetary terms affects their estimations and the reasons for this difference. I confirm previous findings that estimates of bribery are significantly higher when expressed as a percentage of turnover rather than in monetary value. This result is likely due to miscalculations on the part of some respondents. Experience in running a business appears to mitigate this propensity to error, but without eliminating entirely. The second Chapter evaluates how firm owners and managers which were awarded public contracts considered at risk of corruption behave in responding to a survey about public procurement. I conclude that firms with more experience of corruption are no more likely to decline participating in the survey or to answer a question asking them to evaluate the magnitude of bribery, but have a higher probability to deny the existence of bribery compared to firms with less experience of corruption. The third Chapter suggests an innovative approach to identify reticent respondents in business surveys and to correct indicators for the frequency of corruption accordingly.