Glaeser, Edward L.; Goldin, Claudia - National Bureau of Economic Research - 2004
developing nation today. We construct a "corruption and fraud index" using word counts from a large number of newspapers for 1815 … to 1975, supplemented with other historical facts. The index reveals that America experienced a substantial decrease in … the "corruption and fraud index" is about five times its level from the end of the Progressive Era to the 1970s. If the …