Do anti-corruption educational campaigns reach students? Evidence from two cities in Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

The authors investigate the effect of anti-corruption educational materials - an informational folder with materials designed by Transparency International- on the willingness of students to participate in an anti-corruption campaign and their general judgment about corruption in two cities in Russia and Ukraine by conducting experiments. During a survey of 350 students in Khabarovsk, Russia, and 600 students in Lviv, Ukraine, young people were randomly exposed to either a folder with information about the negative effects of corruption in general and in the higher education system in particular (treatment group), or a folder with information irrelevant to corruption (control group). The effects were statistically significant in the total sample in Khabarovsk and only in some social groups in Lviv. The results might be interesting not only for scholars, but also for policy makers and practitioners.