Growth in human development: The role of corruption

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to offer evidence on the effects of corruption on human development. With this aim, cross-country growth models have been estimated in which the growth rates of the three components of the Human Development Index (HDI) in the period 2000-2009 are regressed on a set of conditioning factors such as perceived corruption and income inequality. The results of the estimations suggest that both the growth of the HDI and its education component are affected by income inequality. However, the negative effect of corruption on the growth of human development seems to be restricted to the health component of the HDI.