Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105526 |
| Journal | World development |
| Volume | 145 |
| Early online date | 19 May 2021 |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2021 |
Abstract
This study tests the prediction that perceived corruption reduces ethical behavior. Integrating a standard “cheating” experiment into a broad household survey in rural Thailand, we find tentative support for this prediction: respondents who perceive corruption in state affairs are more likely to cheat and, thus, to fortify the negative consequences of corruption. Interestingly, there is a small group of non-conformers. The main relation is robust to consideration of socio-demographic, attitudinal, and situational control variables. Attendance of others at the cheating experiment, stimulating the reputational concern to be seen as honest, reduces cheating, thus indicating transparency as a remedy.
Keywords
- Cheating, Corruption, Individual characteristics, Lab-in-the-field experiment
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Social Sciences(all)
- Development
- Social Sciences(all)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
- Economics and Econometrics
Cite this
- Standard
- Harvard
- Apa
- Vancouver
- BibTeX
- RIS
In: World development, Vol. 145, 105526, 09.2021.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Corruption and cheating
T2 - Evidence from rural Thailand
AU - Hübler, Olaf
AU - Koch, Melanie
AU - Menkhoff, Lukas
AU - Schmidt, Ulrich
N1 - Funding Information: We thank participants at several seminars as well as Johannes Abeler, Eugen Dimant, Antonia Grohmann, Menusch Khadjavi, three anonymous referees, and the editor (Arun Agrawal) for helpful comments on various versions of this research. Declarations of interest: none. Financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG grant ME 1070/8) is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - This study tests the prediction that perceived corruption reduces ethical behavior. Integrating a standard “cheating” experiment into a broad household survey in rural Thailand, we find tentative support for this prediction: respondents who perceive corruption in state affairs are more likely to cheat and, thus, to fortify the negative consequences of corruption. Interestingly, there is a small group of non-conformers. The main relation is robust to consideration of socio-demographic, attitudinal, and situational control variables. Attendance of others at the cheating experiment, stimulating the reputational concern to be seen as honest, reduces cheating, thus indicating transparency as a remedy.
AB - This study tests the prediction that perceived corruption reduces ethical behavior. Integrating a standard “cheating” experiment into a broad household survey in rural Thailand, we find tentative support for this prediction: respondents who perceive corruption in state affairs are more likely to cheat and, thus, to fortify the negative consequences of corruption. Interestingly, there is a small group of non-conformers. The main relation is robust to consideration of socio-demographic, attitudinal, and situational control variables. Attendance of others at the cheating experiment, stimulating the reputational concern to be seen as honest, reduces cheating, thus indicating transparency as a remedy.
KW - Cheating
KW - Corruption
KW - Individual characteristics
KW - Lab-in-the-field experiment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110504544&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105526
DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105526
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110504544
VL - 145
JO - World development
JF - World development
SN - 0305-750X
M1 - 105526
ER -