Institutions, Governance and the Control of Corruption

Abstract

This book considers how emerging economies around the world face the challenge of building good institutions and effective governance, since so much of economic development depends on having these in place. The promotion of shared prosperity and the battle against poverty require interventions to reach out to the poor and the disadvantaged. Yet time and again we have seen such effort foild or diminished by corruption and leakage. The creation of good governance and institutions and structures to combat corruption require determination and passion but also intricate design rooted in data, analysis, and research. In this book, leading researchers from around the world bring to the table some of the best available ideas to help create better governance structures, design laws for corruption control, and nurture good institutions.-- 1. Introduction / Kaushik Basu and Tito Cordella -- 2. Anti-corruption Institutions: Some History and Theory / Avinash Dixit -- 3. Corruption as a Political Phenomenon / Francis Fukuyama -- 4. Corruption, Organized Crime, and Money Laundering / Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bonnie J. Palifka -- 5. Reflections on Corruption in the Context of Political and Economic Liberalization / Pranab Bardhan -- 6. Why is Italy Disproportionally Corrupt?: A Conjecture / Diego Gambetta -- 7. Cohesive Institutions and the Distribution of Political Rents: Theory and Evidence / Timothy Besley and Hannes Mueller -- 8. If Politics is the Problem, How Can External Actors be Part of the Solution? / Shantayanan Devarajan and Stuti Khemani -- 9. Fighting Political Corruption: Evidence from Brazil / Claudio Ferraz and Frederico Finan -- 10. What Drives Citizen Perceptions of Government Corruption? National Income, Petty Bribe Payments and the Unknown / Nancy Birdsall, Charles Kenny, and Anna Diofasi -- 11. Doing the Survey Two-Step: The Effects of Reticence on Estimates of Corruption in Two-Stage Survey Questions / Nona Karalashvili, Aart Kraay, and Peter Murrell.