Abstract
Abstract We study the relation between nuclear family ties and corruption. Our theoretical model shows that the population share of people who desire close ties with their families (i.e. the extensive margin) has an ambiguous effect on the level of corruption, due to the presence of conflicting mechanisms. However, the strength of this desire among people who want close family ties (i.e. the intensive margin) has an unambiguously negative effect on corruption. The latter outcome finds support from our empirical analysis: Using micro-level data, we show that, in contrast to conventional wisdom and cross-country reflections, stronger family ties are negatively correlated with a broad set of activities that measure corruption.
Highlights
Corruption is a phenomenon whose adverse social and economic effects can be wideranging (e.g., Mauro 1995; Tanzi and Davoodi 1998)
Our theoretical model showed that the overall effect of strong family ties on the incentive to be corrupt – and, on the incidence of corruption – can be ambiguous due to the presence of conflicting mechanisms
Our theory pinpointed the possibility that the impact on corruption can be quite different, depending on the characteristics that measure the relative strength of family ties
Summary
Corruption is a phenomenon whose adverse social and economic effects can be wideranging (e.g., Mauro 1995; Tanzi and Davoodi 1998). For this reason, the identification of various factors that fuel corruption has held a prominent place in the research agenda of many fields, including economics. A large body of work has pinpointed several factors that are responsible for high levels of corruption – factors that include economic, administrative, historical, and cultural ones.. Our study contributes to a further understanding of the cultural sources behind high corruption, as it aims at investigating, both theoretically and empirically, how family ties can potentially affect the level of corruption. The results from existing empirical work on the link between corruption and family ties, is rather mixed: While the study by Marè et al (2016) finds that stronger family ties are associated with higher levels of corruption, Ljunge (2015) reports that stronger family ties promote civic virtues – among them, the disapproval of corruption
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