Electoral cycles in perceived corruption: International empirical evidence

I examine whether elections influence perceived corruption in the public sector. Perceived corruption in the public sector is measured by the reversed Transparency International's Perception of Corruption Index (CPI). The dataset includes around 100 democracies over the period 2012–2016, a sample for which the CPI is comparable across countries and over time. The results show that the reversed CPI was about 0.4 points higher in election years than in other years, indicating that perceived corruption in the public sector increased before elections. The effect is especially pronounced before early elections (1.0 points) compared to regular elections (0.4 points). Future research needs to investigate why perceived corruption in the public sector increased before elections.     

Does corruption impede economic growth in Pakistan?

The present study reinvestigates the impact of corruption on economic growth by incorporating financial development and trade openness in growth model in case of Pakistan. We have used time series data over the period of 1987–2009. We have applied structural break unit root test to test the integrating order of the variables. The structural break cointegration has also been applied to examine the long run relationship between the variables.The long run relationship between the variables is validated in case of Pakistan. We find that corruption impedes economic growth. Financial development adds in economic growth. Trade openness stimulates economic growth. The causality analysis has exposed the feedback effect between corruption and economic growth and same inference is drawn for trade openness and corruption. Trade openness and economic growth are interdependent. Financial development Granger causes economic growth implying supply-side hypothesis in case of Pakistan.     

Environmental performance,corruption and economic growth: global evidence using a new data set

This study investigates the relationship between environmental performance, corruption and economic growth using panel data of 87 countries covering the period from 2002 to 2012. The Environmental Performance Index is used for the first time to evaluate the environmental quality on economic growth. By employing both ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ panel models, we find that environmental performance is positively related to economic growth and is more significant in non-Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) countries. Moreover, when corruption is incorporated, the empirical estimation results indicate that although lower corruption helps economic growth in non-OECD countries, the negative coefficients of the three interactive terms show that the positive effect of environment performance on economic growth will drop, while greater environmental performance combined with natural resource abundance inevitably leads to inefficient bureaucracies and hence disadvantageous economic growth. As a result, policymakers in non-OECD countries should carefully ensure better government quality when they exhibit strong environmental performance so as to avoid any disadvantageous impact upon economic growth.     

The Dynamic Relationship Between Corruption–Inflation: Evidence From Panel Vector Autoregression

This paper aims to explain the mixed causality nexus between corruption and inflation. For that, we apply a panel vector autoregression model on a large sample of 180 countries over the period 1996–2014. Using two corruption indexes and subsample estimations, results provide evidence that the inflation–corruption nexus is bidirectional. The causal effect is more important from corruption to inflation. Interactions remain significant but heterogeneous across subsamples with different income levels. The corruption effect is persistent only in low–middle income economies and its adverse effect on inflation is weaker in high‐income economies. The two‐way relationship between inflation and corruption reflects the inability to control inflation and the situation of the poverty trap in some countries.     

Short- and long-term relation between economic development and government spending: the role of quality of institutions

ABSTRACT

This paper tests the Wagner’s assumption of the one-sided directional flow moving from economic growth to public spending considering an international database over the 1996–2012 period. By using indicators on the level of country control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability, rule of law, regulatory quality and voice and accountability, the paper analyses the economic performance-public spending nexus controlling for the quality of the institutions. The empirical evidence supports the existence of the Wagner’s law, showing that, in the short-run, public spending positively reacts to a positive shock in national income, with a lower magnitude for democratic countries. In the long run, the error-correction model shows the convergence between public spending and national output occurring less quickly for non-democratic, low-income and to a smaller extent for non-OECD countries. Institutional quality, such as effort in controlling corruption and the presence of regulations that permit and promote private sector development, may help reducing the amount of per capita public spending and making it more productive. Higher expenses in compositional amenities such as public services for the elderly may explain why public spending per capita will increase the most in economies with a higher share of the population that need healthcare facilities.     

Corruption and growth in Africa

A major concern in the development of African economies is the impact of corruption on economic growth and while there is general agreement on its detrimental effects, there is considerable debate over its nature and importance. In particular there is little work on the interaction between corruption, government expenditures and how this influences economic growth in countries in the region. This paper takes an endogenous growth model, extends it to include different categories of government spending and then introduces the possibility of corruption, which is allowed to have different effects on each of the categories. The results confirm the negative effect of corruption and military spending, but also show that corruption interacts with military burden, through indirect and complementary effects, to further increase its negative effect. The policy implications are that the effects of corruption on economic growth are worse than was thought in countries which have high military burdens.     

腐败、经济增长与环境污染的 库兹涅茨效应:以二氧化硫排放数据为例

目前，国内文献关于腐败、经济增长与环境污染相互关系的研究还不充分，将三者置于同一整体框架下的研究能为理解和验证腐败与环境之间的关系提供直接的证据。本文在传统的EKC模型中考虑腐败因素，利用1995-2011年的中国省级面板数据研究腐败、经济增长与环境污染三者之间的关系，验证了腐败对经济增长以及腐败和经济增长对环境的影响。结果表明：(1)腐败阻碍了经济增长；(2)经济增长与环境污染之间呈倒“U”型关系，我国仍处于经济增长越快，环境污染越严重阶段；(3) 腐败能够在一定程度上通过弱化经济增长从而对环境污染有负向作用，但这并不意味着腐败是解决环境污染的手段，政府不能通过阻碍经济增长来解决环境污染问题。     

The nexus between corruption and academic freedom: An international investigation of the underlying linkages

Studying a relatively under-researched aspect in economics, this paper examines the nexus between corruption and academic freedom. Our main hypothesis is that greater corruption undermines academic freedom and we test this hypothesis using data for 104 nations from 2012 to 2018. Our results support the main hypothesis, and this finding also generally holds across alternative aspects of academic freedom. Another contribution of this work lies in dissecting the direct and indirect (through corruption) effects of various drivers of academic freedom. Finally, additional insights are gained by considering different dimensions of academic freedom and how they are impacted by corruption.     

Institutions and the Relation between Corruption and Economic Growth

We study the effects of bureaucratic corruption on economic growth in a framework that takes into account that corruption also affects growth through its impact on institutions. We use a formal growth framework in which corruption affects growth negatively because of individual rent‐seeking and stealing of public goods, but where corruption may serve a positive role by taking over the role of institutions. We find that the overall effect of corruption on economic growth is highly dependent on the institutional setting of a country. Particularly in situations where institutions are not well developed corruption may be conducive to economic growth. We also find that the interaction among institutions themselves matters. This underscores the importance of taking into account the complete institutional setting when studying corruption, both in theory as well as empirically.     

The evolution of corruption and development in transitional economies: Evidence from China

It is widely accepted in the literature, that the level of corruption is negatively and robustly related to economic development. However, skeptics argue that for transitional economies, this relationship may not hold. Economic reform loosens up the control of local officials and can increase corruption; Corruption and per capita income can be positively related. Using panel provincial data of China from 1995 to 2014 on prosecuted cases of corruption, we discover that during the early phase of China’s economic reform (during Zhu Rongji and Hu-Wen administrations), a positive short-run relationship is indeed observed. But, there is a robust negative long-run cointegration relationship between corruption and per capita income. The development of the market economy improves private wage and income in the long-run. The relatively inefficient and low returns to ordinary corruption cannot compete with rising market returns, which lead to dwindling corruption. However, the share of major corruption cases is increasing over time to be able to compete with rising market wages.     

Democracy-growth nexus and its interaction effect on human development: A cross-national analysis

This paper examines the democracy-growth nexus and its interactive effect on human development by using cross-national panel data spanning over 20 years incorporating the effect of democratization process. We find evidence that the effect from democracy to human development is nonlinear and varies depending on the levels of growth and democracy. The results confirm that the interaction effect of democracy-growth nexus has a positive impact on human development but the effect is sensitive to democratization process and the level of a country's economic development. It is established that democracy is more crucial in developed countries, whereas economic growth is vital in developing countries. The findings imply that the role of democracy in enhancing human development should not be overemphasized as economic growth is vital in the developing countries.     

消费者价格指数和生产者价格指数相关性研究——基于Copula函数

利用Copula函数,基于2004.1-2012.3的消费者价格指数(CPI)和生产者价格指数(PPI)数据,文章实证分析CPI和PPI的相互关系;通过平方欧式距离检验,认为t-Copula函数是所有Copula函数中对CPI和PPI的拟合程度最优,计算结果表明CPI、PPI存在对称的尾部相关性,两者表现出同时上涨或同时下跌的状态;全国消费者价格指数NCPI、城市消费者价格指数UCPI和农村消费者价格指数RCPI与PPI的尾部相关系数分别为0.4192、0.4560和0.2136,农村相对城市自给自足成分较高和消费结构的差异,PPI对RCPI的影响程度要弱于对UCPI的影响程度。     

External Debt and Growth in Emerging Economies

The paper studies the relationship between external debt and economic growth in a panel of emerging countries. A number of economists have proposed different methods of analysing the nexus between economic growth and public debt. The paper investigates the debt-growth nexus using a linear and non-linear specification, employing a panel ARDL model on 13 emerging countries during the period 1990–2016. The results show that there is no robust effect of debt on economic growth in the long run; however in the short run, external debt is negatively and significantly correlated to economic growth.     

Panel evidence on finance,institutions and economic growth

This article investigates whether the level of institutional development affects the link between financial development and economic growth. Using a range of cross-sectional and panel approaches we find that the positive effect of banking development on growth is reduced as the level of institutions (e.g. rule of law, lack of corruption) increases. We do not, however, find a similar result when we examine the joint effect of institutional level and stock market development on economic growth. We attribute these results to the ability of banks to perform functions similar to those provided by well-operating institutions, whereas stock markets do not perform such comparable functions.     

Revisiting the finance–growth nexus: the Turkish case, 1980–2010

In Turkey, the empirical results on the link between financial development and economic growth are mixed. The existing studies do not take into account the fact that Turkey has experienced endemic political and economic instabilities over extended periods. This study aims to analyse the role of macroeconomic instability and public borrowing on the finance–growth nexus in Turkey by using time series econometric techniques over the 1980–2010 period. In doing so, we attempt to extend the existing literature by taking into account the role of macroeconomic instability as well as public borrowing. Our results reveal that there are additional – albeit indirect – channels between finance and growth via the effects of macro instability and public borrowing on financial development and economic growth. After taking into account the effects of overall instability and public borrowing, we found that growth–financial development relationship is bidirectional and permanent. In other words, in Turkish case, economic growth and financial development are jointly determined. Thus, our results shed some light on the ambiguity of the evidence on the link between financial development and economic growth for Turkey.     

Presidential approval and macroeconomic conditions: evidence from a nonlinear model

Contrary to previous empirical studies that find a linear link between economic conditions and presidential approval, this study argues for and finds a nonlinear relationship. A threshold regression is used to assess potential nonlinear relationships between macroeconomic variables and presidential popularity. A quarterly data analysis for the 1960Q1–2012Q2 time period reveals that domestic factors prevail in shaping presidential approval. Most compelling is evidence of a threshold relationship involving economic conditions: When unemployment is slightly over 7%, its decline impacts significantly and favourably on presidential approval, an effect that virtually disappears below the threshold value. Change in consumer sentiment affects presidential approval in a limited way, while inflation shows no association at all. These results combine to encourage further investigation of nonlinear processes in the nexus of economics and politics.     

腐败与经济增长的关系实证研究——基于多国面板数据的分析

本文利用多国面板数据实证研究了腐败与经济增长的关系,得出以下结论:一是对于发达国家,腐败不利于经济增长;二是对于发展中国家,一开始腐败对经济增长是有促进作用的,但腐败与经济增长之间是一种倒U型的关系,腐败对经济增长的促进作用只是暂时的;三是对于我国,改革开放的深入,市场体制的完善,政府管制的减少,腐败的负面影响已经超过了正面影响,目前处于倒U型的右半部分,即腐败不利于我国经济增长。最后,本文给出了治理我国腐败的对策建议。     

The causal relationship between financial development and economic growth in Africa

ABSTRACT

Previous empirical studies on the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth are not instructive given their failure to unearth the causality trend across the different time periods. Using a more recently developed and robust indicator of financial development, we revisit the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth within the framework of a frequency-domain spectral causality technique which allows the causality to vary across time. Using data from 47 African countries over the period 1980–2016, our findings largely suggest that, even though there is some evidence of demand-following, supply-leading and feedback hypotheses, for most part, we find strong support of neutrality hypothesis. Thus, financial development and economic growth at most frequency levels evolve independently. We infer that caution must be exercised in making general conclusions about the causal nexus between financial development and economic growth.     

Does productivity growth lower inflation in Korea?

We investigate Granger causality between productivity growth and inflation in Korea using quarterly data for the period 1985Q1–2002Q4. Our results indicate unidirectional Granger causality from productivity growth to inflation. In light of such causality, we estimate the effect of productivity and other variables on productivity. According to our regression results, a 1% increase in labour and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) reduces Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation by 0.07–0.08% and 0.37–0.44%, respectively. Our results also suggest that the productivity-inflation nexus became stronger in Korea since the Asian financial crisis, and that this was largely due to structural reform and technological progress.     

Non‐linear finance–growth nexus

This paper revisits the question of whether the finance–growth nexus varies with the stages of economic development. Using a novel threshold regression with the instrumental variables approach proposed by Caner and Hansen (2004) to the dataset used in Levine et al. (2000) we detect overwhelming evidence in support of a positive linkage between financial development and economic growth, and this positive effect is larger in the low‐income countries than in the high‐income ones. The data also reveal that financial development tends to have stronger impacts on capital accumulation and productivity growth in the low‐income countries than in the high‐income ones. The findings are robust to alternative financial development measures and conditioning information sets.