Professor J. Ensminger
Baxter 202
Office: 626-935-4541
jensming@hss.caltech.edu
Class: MW 2:30-4 PM (Baxter 25)
Office Hours: By Appointment any day
Admin Assistant: Sheryl Cobb
395-4220; Baxter 134
SPRING 2013
ANTHROPOLOGY/POLITICAL SCIENCE 127: CORRUPTION
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A day rarely passes when we don’t read headlines about corruption in both the developed and
the developing world. In the post-Enron, Wall Street collapse, and scandal laden days of recent
American politics, we no longer think of corruption as a largely African, Asian, and Latin
American problem.
In this course we will survey a broad literature on corruption. We will consider its meaning, its
measurement, and its costs to social well-being and economic development. We will explore
the many theories attempting to explain its incidence in some parts of the world more than
others. Transparency and access to information have been a large area of research in
corruption. But like all aspects of this knotty problem, the data are not consistent on the impact
of greater transparency upon corruption. In this vein we shall also address the role of the media
and Freedom of Information laws. While most of our readings adopt an economist’s perspective
rooted in institutional incentives for individual behavior as an explanation for corruption, we will
also take up the role of culture and corruption. In order to address the spread of a culture of
corruption within a country, we will consider the relevance of some new literature from
psychology that attempts to explain how dishonesty spreads within a society. Finally, we
consider what is known about attempted solutions to the mitigation of corruption.
Our readings run the gamut from formal theory to empirical case studies. We will read about
economic experiments that attempt to identify mechanisms and correlates of corruption, and
cross-country regression analyses that probe patterns in large datasets.
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READINGS
Articles--go to: https://courses.caltech.edu/login/index.php
EVALUATION OF STUDENTS
This class may only be taken for a letter grade.
The class will be run as a seminar. That means that we all read the same papers and discuss
them as a group. Everyone is expected to contribute during every class.
Students will be graded upon the quality of their contributions to class discussions of the
readings (30 percent) and upon their final research paper (70 percent).
For your research paper you have a lot of latitude, but please clear your topic with me as soon
as possible. The general idea is to delve into one or more big issues related to corruption in the
context of one or more countries. The availability of literature will most likely be the driving force
behind the breadth of the topic and whether you focus upon one or more countries. Ideally, you
will be able to make some policy recommendations specific to the issue you are addressing and
the country/countries you are studying. Examples of topical areas are: the effectiveness of anticorruption commissions, the culture of corruption, and the role of the media in corruption. For
example, India recently passed a Freedom of Information Act that has been much in the news.
Is it having any effect on corruption? Based upon the literature on transparency and freedom of
information, together with your research on the institutional constraints in India, would we expect
it to be successful? Why or why not? If it has not lived up to expectations, what would need to
change to make it effective? Be sure to select a topic and country for which there is adequate
literature and data. I am prepared to be highly flexible regarding your paper topic, so if you
have a proposal that varies from this format, just come talk to me about it and get it cleared.
Your paper should be approximately 15 pages (standard font and 1 inch margins), exclusive of
references.
You are strongly advised to make use of the HSS librarian (Lindsay Cleary:
Lindsay@library.caltech.edu) and the Writing Center.
EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
Class attendance is required in this class, as is class participation in discussions.
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Readings for the Course
Banerjee, Abhijit V., Selvan Kumar, Rohini Pande, and Felix Su
2010 Do Informed Voters Make Better Choices: Experimental Evidence from Urban India.
Unpublished manuscript.
Bardhan, Pranab
2006 The Economist’s Approach to the Problem of Corruption. World Development
34(2):341-348.
Barr, Abigail and Danila Serra
2010 Corruption and culture: An experimental analysis. Journal of Public Economics
94(2010):862-869.
Billger, Sherrilyn M. and Rajeev K. Goel
2009 Do existing corruption levels matter in controlling corruption? Cross-country quantile
regression estimates. Journal of Development Economics 90(2009):299-305.
Bjorkman, Martina and Jakob Svensson
2009 Power to the People: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment on CommunityBased Monitoring in Uganda. Quarterly Journal of Economics May 2009 (725-769).
Bolongaita, Emil P.
2010 An exception to the rule? Why Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Commission succeeds
where others don’t – a comparison with the Philippines’ Ombudsman. U4 Issue
August 2010 No. 4.
Di Tella, Rafael and Ernesto Schargdodsky
2003 The Role of Wages and Auditing during a Crackdown on Corruption in the City of
Buenos Aires. Journal of Law and Economics XLVI(April 2003):269-292.
Djankov, Simeon, Jose G. Montalvo, and Marta Reynal-Querol
2008 The curse of aid. Journal of Economic Growth 13:169-194.
Fisman, Raymond and Edward Miguel
2007 Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking
Tickets Journal of Political Economy 115(6):1020-1048.
Fisman, Raymond and Jakob Svensson
2007 Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence. Journal of
Development Economics 83(2007):63-75.
Francken, Nathalie, Bart Minten and Johan F.M. Swinnen
2009 Media, Monitoring, and Capture of Public Funds: Evidence from Madagascar. World
Development 37(1):242-255.
Frank, Bjorn and Gunther G. Schulze
2000 Does economics make citizens corrupt? Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization 43(2000):101-113.
Gino, Francesca, Shahar Ayal, and Dan Ariely
2009 Contagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior: The Effect of One Bad Apple on
the Barrel. Psychological Science 20(3):393-398.
Gino, Francesca and Max H. Bazerman
2009 When misconduct goes unnoticed: The acceptability of gradual erosion in others’
ethnical behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45(2009):708-719.
Gino, Francesca, Jun Gu, and Chen-Bo Zhong
2009 Contagion or restitution? When bad apples can motivate ethical behavior. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology 45(2009):1299-1302.
Glaeser, Edward L. and Raven E. Saks
2006 Corruption in America. Journal of Public Economics 90(2006):1053-1072.
Kaufmann, Daniel, Aart Kraay, and Massimo Mastruzzi
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2010
The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues.
Unpublished working paper, September, 2010.
Kaufmann, Daniel and Shang-Jin Wei
2000 “Does ‘Grease Money’ Speed Up the Wheels of Commerce?” IMF Working Paper
WP/00/64 (Fiscal Affairs Department), March 2000.
Kolstad, Ivar, and Arne Wiig
2009 Is Transparency the Key to Reducing Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries? World
Development 37(3):521-532.
Lambsdorff, Johann Graf
2002 Making corrupt deals: contracting in the shadow of the law. Journal of Economic
Behavior & Organization 48(2002):221-241.
Lessmann, Christiian and Gunther Markwardt
2010 One Size Fits All? Decentralization, Corruption, and the Monitoring of Bureaucrats.
World Development 38(4):631-646.
Mauro, Paolo
1995 Corruption and Growth. The quarterly Journal of Economics 110(3):681-712.
Mazar, Nina, On Amir, and Dan Ariely
2008 The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance. Journal of
Marketing Research XLV(December 2008):633-644.
McMillan, John and Pablo Zoido
2004 How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru. Journal of Economic Perspectives
18(4):69-92.
Olivier de Sardan, J.P.
1999 A moral economy of corruption in Africa? The Journal of Modern African Studies
37(1):25-52.
Olken, Benjamin A.
2006 Corruption and the costs of redistribution: Micro evidence from Indonesia. Journal of
Public Economics 90(2006):853-870.
Olken, Benjamin A.
2007 Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia. Journal of
Political Economy 115(2):200-249.
Olken, Benjamin
2009 Corruption perceptions vs. corruption reality. Journal of Public Economics 93:950964.
Olken, Benjamin A. and Rohini Pande
2012 Corruption in Developing Countries. Annual Review of Economics 2012(4):479-509.
Peisakhin, Leonid
2012 Transparency and Corruption: Evidence from India. Journal of Law and Economics
55(1):129-149.
Persson, Anna, Bo Rothstein, and Jan Teorell
2010 The failure of Anti-Corruption Policies: A Theoretical Mischaracterization of the
Problem. University of Gothenburg: QoG Working Paper Series 2010:19.
Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson
2004 Local Capture: Evidence from a Central Government Transfer Program in Uganda.
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2004.
Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson
2005 Fighting Corruption to Improve Schooling: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign in
Uganda. Journal of the European Economic Association 3(2-3):259-267.
Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson
2006 Using Micro-Surveys to Measure and Explain Corruption. World Development
34(2):359-370.
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Rothstein, Bo
2011 Corruption and Risks: Anti-corruption: the indirect ‘big bang’ approach. Review of
International Political Economy 18(2):228-250.
Sandholtz, Wayne and William Koetzle
2000 Accounting for Corruption: Economic Structure, Democracy, and Trade. International
Studies Quarterly 2000(44):31-50.
Serra, Danila
2011 Combining Top-Down and Bottom-Up Accountability: Evidence from a Bribery
Experiment. The Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization 28(3): 569-587.
Shu, Lisa L. and Francesca Gino
2012 Sweeping Dishonesty Under the Rug: How Unethical Actions Lead to Forgetting of
Moral Rules. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102(6):1164-1177.
Shleifer, Andrei and Robert W. Vishny
1993 Corruption. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1993.
Svensson, Jakob
2003 Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much: Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms. The
Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2003.
Svensson, Jakob
2005 Eight Questions about Corruption. Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(3):19-42.
Swamy, Anand, Stephen Knack, Young Lee, and Omar Azfar
2001 Gender and Corruption. Journal of Development Economics 64(1):25-55.
Swidler, Ann and Susan Cotts Watkins
2009 “Teach a Man to Fish”: The Sustainability Doctrine and Its Social Consequences.
World Development 37(7):1182-1196.
Transparency International, Kenya
2008 The Kenya Bribery Index 2008.
Treisman, Daniel
2000 The causes of corruption: a cross-national study. Journal of Public Economics
76(2000):399-457.
Wiltermuth, Scott S.
2011 Cheating more when the spoils are split. Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes 115(2011):157-168.
Zitzewitz, Eric
2012 Forensic Economics. Journal of Economic Literature 50(3):731-769.
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CLASS SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS (REVISED)
DAME
TOPIC
M Apr 1
Overview of the Course
W Apr 3
Introduction to Corruption
 Bardhan 2006
 Svensson 2005
 Shleifer and Vishny 1993
 Swidler and Watkins 2009
M Apr 8
The Developing World, Systemic Corruption, and Explanatory
Theories (Principal-Agent and Collective Action)
 Olken and Pande 2012
 Persson, Rothstein, and Teorell 2010
 Djankov, Montalvo, and Reynal-Querol 2008
W Apr 17
Measuring Corruption
 Transparency International Kenya Bribery Index 2008
 Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi 2010
 Olken 2009
 Reinikka and Svensson 2006
M Apr 22
Forensic Economics (Including Ensminger’s Data)
 Zitzewitz 2012
W Apr 24
Student Paper Topics—Short Presentation from each student
 Topic, Country, Literature Reviewed, Argument
M Apr 29
The Social and Economic Costs of Corruption
 Kaufman and Wei 2000
 Mauro 1995
 Fisman and Svensson 2007
W May 1
The Social and Economic Costs of Corruption
 Svensson 2003
 Reinikka and Svensson 2004
 Olken 2006
M May 6
Explanations of Corruption
 Treisman 2000
 Sandholtz and Koetzle 2000
 Glaeser and Saks 2006
 Swamy, Knack, Lee, and Azfar 2001
W May 8
Culture and Corruption
 Barr and Serra 2010
 Fisman and Miguel 2007
 Olivier de Sardan 1999
 Frank and Schulze 2000
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M May 13
Psychological insights into Breeding a Culture of Corruption
 Mazar, Amir, and Ariely 2008
 Gino and Bazerman 2009
 Gino, Ayal, Ariely 2009
 Gino, Gu, Zhong 2009
 Wiltermuth 2011
 Shu and Gino 2012
W May 15
Transparency
 Reinikka and Svensson 2005
 Kolstad and Wiig 2009
 Peisakhin 2012
 Banerjee, Kumar, Pande, and Su 2010
M May 20
Role of the Media and Corruption
 McMillan and Zoido 2004
 Lessmann and Markwardt 2010
 Francken, Minten, and Swinnen 2009
W May 22
Solutions (4 of the following)
 Rothstein 2011
 Billger and Goel 2009
 Di Tella and Schargrodsky 2003
 Olken 2007
 Serra 2012
 Bjorkman and Svensson 2009
 Lambsdorff 2002
 Bolongaita 2010
M May 27
No Class: Memorial Day
W May 29
Student Presentations (Seniors)
M Jun 3
Student Presentations
W Jun 5
Student Presentations
TH Jun 6
Senior Papers Due 5PM
(email to jensming@hss.caltech.edu)
W Jun 12
All Other Papers Due 5PM
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