09 October 2009

What does corruption have to do with development?



A commentator suggests that a "tolerable administration of justice" needs to incorporate "zero-tolerance of corruption." I agree about the importance of predictability, but corruption is a pretty broad concept, and is it always the most binding constraint?

Mushtaq Khan at SOAS has some great work skewering the cross-country approach to corruption and growth which dominates the literature. This chart in particular articulates that old favourite: Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

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Update: Mushtaq Khan and Daniel Kaufmann are on the next Development Drums, send your questions to Owen Barder

2 comments:

Ranil Dissanayake said...

You're completely right here, Lee. I'm going to post another lengthy rant about this shortly. I was taught by Mushtaq back when I did my MSc, and he's brilliant, particularly on corruption.

Lee said...

I was never taught by him but I went to his inauguration lecture which was great. Generally I feel SOAS is a bit too critical of the 'mainstream' and not quite constructive enough. But Khan is still the best person I've read on corruption.

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