with Ahmad Saleh
May 2008
Does corruption grease or sand the wheels of economic growth? This paper
tries to quantitatively evaluate
the econometric literature on the macroeconomic effects of corruption.
We put together a unique data set
comprising 465 estimated effects of corruption on growth from 41 different
studies. We use it to carry out an
econometric survey focusing on whether differences in estimation, measurement
and specification affect the
magnitude and significance of the corruption effect. Although we find evidence
that publication bias may be
severe, there is also plentiful evidence of a genuine negative corruption
effect. We find that those less likely
to unearth a negative and significant effect of corruption on growth are
those estimated with fixed-effects and
with more degrees of freedom, which control for human capital and use the
Transparency International index,
and by authors in academia (as opposed to by those in the private sector
and international organizations).