Determinants of corruption pressures on local government in the E.U.

Sunčana Slijepčević,Edo Rajh,Jelena Budak

doi:10.1080/1331677x.2020.1774793

Sunčana Slijepčević, Edo Rajh + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2020.1774793

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Abstract

This article investigates corruption pressures at the sub-national government level by employing a novel approach of empirically assessing the subjective opinions of local councillors about corruption risks they have been exposed to. Based on the large survey data collected in 14 European countries we provide evidence that individual perceptions of corruption risk experienced by local councillors are formed by their personal characteristics, where educational attainment stands as the most significant deterrent to corruption risk. The comparative assessment of non-transition and post-transition countries (PTCs) shows that respondents from PTCs exhibit higher levels of perceived corruption pressures on the local government level (PCL). In non-transition countries, councillors in the local government units with more fiscal power are more exposed to corruption. When government effectiveness is included, the effect of transition process and local fiscal decentralisation loses significance. Government effectiveness appears to be a strong tool to alleviate the corruption pressure at the local government level, in particular for younger councillors in PTCs The findings shed more light on the issues of corruption, which is a striking problem at the sub-national government level in the E.U. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are offered.

Highlights

Corruption hinders economic, political and social development and restrains the availability of public goods and services (OECD, 2014)
While in the first model the results indicated that the corruption is negatively and statistically significantly related with the level of fiscal decentralization (LFD), the results of the fourth model show that there is no statistically significant relationship between corruption and fiscal decentralisation and education level (EDU) AGE gender of local councillor (GEN) LFD government effectiveness (GEF) Model fit
For non-transition countries the second main determinant of corruption risk threatening the efficacy of local government is the LFD It means that councillors in local government units with more fiscal power are more exposed to corruption, no matter of their individual attributes (Table 3)

Summary

Introduction

Corruption hinders economic, political and social development and restrains the availability of public goods and services (OECD, 2014). World Bank estimations indicate that corruption costs are about to reach 2% of the global GDP (World Bank, 2017) showing clearly its large negative effect on private and public finances Recent estimates of both direct and indirect annual corruption costs in the E.U. vary from considerable EUR179 billion to EUR990 billion (European Parliament Research Service, 2016). The main goal of the article is to assess the subjective opinions on corruption pressures at the sub-national government level, what factors affect the corruption perceptions of local councillors. Our contribution to the literature on corruption is two-fold It fills the gap in the rather scarce research on the perceptions of corruption of individuals engaged in the local government. The empirical study investigates corruption pressures at the sub-national government level by offering comparative assessment of non-transition and post-transition European countries.

Literature review

Data description and methodology

Modelling corruption pressure at the local level

Conclusion

Findings

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