Why have anti-corruption efforts often failed? Current thinking on corruption has largely overlooked the profound implications of its contested nature, which paradoxically makes it an effective yet highly dysfunctional 'tool of government.' As a tool of government, it helps execute policies and...

The problem of measuring changes in corruption internationally is significantly more daunting than that of estimating their levels. We compute trends in corruption for groups of geographically proximate countries, based on the geographic distribution of cases of cross-border bribes, and confirm...

Incomplete information on the degree to which governments internalize the long-run interests of the state is an essential element of information asymmetry in international relations. A reputational model with such incomplete information captures two observed facts: i. costly activities, among...

We reconsider the question of what determines corruption at the cross-national level, using new data and methods. Unlike previous studies that rely on perception or survey-based data that have been the subject of criticisms, we employ a new dataset of observed cases of cross-border graft, where...