The article analyzes how economic theory usually investigates corruption. It describes the main traditional economic theories dealing with this issue-principal-agent theory (agency theory) and rent-seeking theory-and it emphasizes that both face some problems, especially their neglect of some...

Public choice theory has originally been motivated by the need to correct the asymmetry, widespread in traditional welfare economics, between the motivational assumptions of market participants and policymakers: Those who played the game of politics should also be considered rational and...

Explaining individual behavior in politics should rely on the same motivational assumptions as explaining behavior in the market: That’s what Political Economy, understood as the application of economics to the study of political processes, is all about. In its standard variant, those who...