Throughout much of the world, corruption in the civil service undermines state capacity, impedes economic development, and saps citizens' morale. But while its pernicious effects are widely recognized, the roots of corruption remain poorly understood. Whereas most studies on corruption's origins...

This study attempts to assess the link between Orthodox Christian religiosity and the government career preference in Russia and the role of public service motivation (PSM) as a mediator of this relationship. PSM has been previously shown to predict public sector career preference among Russian...

Political budget cycles are a well-established phenomenon in which opportunistic politicians systematically adjust public policies prior to elections in order to attract a higher number of votes. We show that corrupt behavior of politicians also follows certain patterns, which are driven by...

Under the system of appointing regional governors by the president, which existed in Russia between 2005-2012, governors' loyalty to the central government and particularly their ability to deliver satisfactory results to the ruling party in national-level elections were crucial to their...