Corruption and Economic Development in Energy-rich Economies

Abstract

We empirically model the causes of corruption and test the economic development–corruption link in energy-rich economies, using data from 48 countries with energy resources. The results indicate that energy abundance may not necessarily hurt economic development in energy-rich countries, allowing enterprises to conduct business more effectively to reduce corruption, establishing a better political (democratic) regime improves corruption rankings, and finally while corruption reduces both the level of GDP per capita and its growth rate, economic development decreases corruption.