Why Do People Pay Bribes? A Survey Experiment with Resource Users

Objective. Although corruption is known to hinder natural resource regulations, the research area remains underexplored. Departing from a debate on the reasons driving people’s engagement in corruption, this research note studies why some resource users bribe enforcement officers. Methods. In a betw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial science quarterly Vol. 100; no. 3; pp. 725 - 735
Main Author Sundström, Aksel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford University of Texas Press 01.05.2019
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
Attitudes
Between-subjects design
Bribery
Corruption
Enforcement
Expectations
Fisheries
Inspectors
Offenses
Original Articles
Participation
Patient participation
Political Science
Polls & surveys
Regulation
Statsvetenskap
Underwater resources
Violations
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Summary:Objective. Although corruption is known to hinder natural resource regulations, the research area remains underexplored. Departing from a debate on the reasons driving people’s engagement in corruption, this research note studies why some resource users bribe enforcement officers. Methods. In a between-subjects survey experiment, with a sample of resource users active in South African small-scale fisheries, we examine the effects of inspectors’ response to bribes and other users’ involvement in corruption on attitudes toward bribery. Results. Resource users are more willing to partake in bribery when inspectors turn a blind eye to violations and when fellow users are involved in corruption. Conclusion. This lends support for the proposition that engagement in corruption is driven by both the anticipated gains from bribes as well as expectations of others’ behavior. This suggests that anti-corruption policy should be designed with the insight that more than one of these features affect attitudes to bribe-taking.
Bibliography:The author will share all data and coding for replication purposes. This research was funded by the Swedish Research Council, grant 2016–06836.
ObjectType-Article-1
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content type line 14
ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237
DOI:10.1111/ssqu.12600