New representative survey data for Harare, Zimbabwe are used to analyze the conditions under which informal businesses encounter requests for bribes. A simple model develops basic expectations of bribe exposure: those with higher opportunity costs of formalizing and with a higher ability to pay...

The soliciting of personal favours for and from others in order to circumvent formal procedures is a common practice across the world, variously known as guanxi, wasta, blat, and jeitinho. Until now, however, there have been no known empirical studies of this practice in South-East Europe. This...