Regional Corruption Research Articles

Corruption, development, and the state in Putin’s Russia

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the determinants of corruption in Russia based on an original survey of 1,376 businesspeople in 39 regions. Regression analysis reveals economically and statistically significant correlations between bribes, development, and state intervention in the economy. Using the instrumental variable of geographical location, this paper provides supportive evidence for a causal (negative) relationship between prosperity and bribes. It finds a positive correlation between regional corruption and state ownership and a negative one between corruption and the size of the bureaucracy. These results hold for both perceived and experiential corruption. This paper contributes to the investigation of corruption in Russia and post-communist countries. It illustrates the importance of economic development, effective bureaucracy, and the reduction of state property for mitigating corruption.

The Effect of Corruption Prevention Efforts with Regional Corruption Cases and Complaints

One of the obstacles in the business sector in Indonesia is corruption. Efforts to eradicate corruption are carried out through education, prevention and prosecution strategies or known as the TRISULA strategy. One of the corruption prevention efforts carried out by the KPK is through the Monitoring Center for Prevention (MCP) with eight areas. This study aims to analyze the relationship between prevention and complaints and regional corruption cases. This study uses secondary data. Secondary data consists of the Regional Corruption Prevention Index, complaints, and regional corruption cases handled by the KPK in 34 provinces in Indonesia, 2018 – 2022. Primary data was obtained through a survey with purposive sampling in 22 local governments. Data were analyzed using regression analysis with e-VIEWS software. The results of the study show that the areas of prevention that have an influence on corruption complaints are planning and budgeting, procurement of goods and services, supervision of the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP), and management of regional property. The prevention area that has an influence on corruption cases is the procurement of goods and services.

The power of belief: Religious traditions and rent-seeking of polluting enterprises in China

This study investigates the impact of religious traditions on enterprise rent-seeking and the mechanism of this impact. The benchmark analysis shows that the stronger religious traditions are, the weaker rent-seeking behavior becomes. The mechanism analysis shows that religious traditions can inhibit the rent-seeking behavior of enterprises by improving their sense of integrity and strengthening their risk aversion. The moderating effect analysis shows that regional corruption and market monopoly weaken the negative relationship between religious traditions and rent-seeking behavior. This study helps clarify the complementary role played by informal institutions in countries around the world.

Pathways to carbon neutrality: how do government corruption and resource misallocation affect carbon emissions?

The government corruption and resource misallocation are important factors that inhibit economic transformation and environmental governance. Using a study sample of 30 provinces in China, this study employs the spatial econometric methods and threshold model to investigate the relationship between regional corruption, resource misallocation, and CO2 emission. The results show that there is a clear spatial dependence and correlation of CO2 emissions. Government corruption is a neglected contributor to carbon emissions, and this promotion effects are attributed to a promotion in resource misallocation. Moreover, the CO2 emissions are significantly promoted by local labor misallocation and capital misallocation, and the increasing effect is more pronounced in areas with high corruption. For spatial spillover effects, there is also no evidence that local CO2 emissions are significantly promoted by capital misallocation of surrounding areas. Additionally, the promoting effect of corruption on CO2 emissions is more pronounced in regions with weak environmental regulation, low marketization process, and the central and western of China. This work elucidates the mechanism of the impact of corruption on environmental pollution from the perspective of resource allocation, and provides an important reference for the effective management of environmental pollution.

Regional Corruption, Foreign Trade, and Environmental Pollution

As an effective means and an important guarantee for environmental pollution management in China, enhancing the level of foreign openness and reducing the level of regional corruption, respectively, the successful implementation of both are key steps in determining the future development of China’s transformation of trade development and green transformation. This paper attempts to systematically examine the mechanisms of regional corruption and foreign trade on environmental pollution from both theoretical and empirical levels. Using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017, this study constructs a dynamic panel model with a one-stage pollution index. The system GMM is used to verify the relationship between corruption, trade, and the environment. Empirical results show that corruption reduces investment in environmental governance, R&D, and the introduction of environmental technology, and it increases environmental pollution by reducing the implementation and control of environmental policies. After excluding the effect of corruption on trade, foreign trade is conducive to the improvement of environmental pollution. Meanwhile, the intensification of corruption on pollution will be weakened with increased openness; that is, China’s expansion of foreign trade is beneficial to attenuating the pollution effect of corruption on the environment. These findings suggest that expanding trade will ultimately improve the environment and even mitigate the negative impact of corruption on the environment. Therefore, China should dredge the channel of factor flow, give full play to the vitality of market players, strictly investigate corruption, and encourage opening up.

How to improve total factor energy efficiency under climate change: does export sophistication matter?

Climate change has a profound impact on human survival and development. Climate change is an energy and economic issue, which should be driven by technology. Total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) improvement is undoubtedly a breakthrough in solving energy problems. In this paper, the fixed effect model, impulse response function, and threshold regression model are used to test the complex relationship between export sophistication and TFEE. The results reveal that export sophistication improvement leads to higher TFEE. The impulse response results verify the existence of a phased and positive correlation between export sophistication and TFEE. Finally, the relationship between export sophistication and TFEE significantly varied across different threshold levels of regional corruption score, economic development, and openness. This article led the foundation for supporting China's export sophistication promotion strategy and also provides a reference for energy efficiency improvement and energy crisis response in the post-pandemic era.

Классификация индикаторов антикоррупционного мониторинга регионов Российской Федерации

The article presents the author’s classification of indicators in the plane of anti-corruption monitoring, for the purpose of subsequent ranking and evaluation of the activities of executive authorities for the implementation of anti-corruption policy at the level of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that corruption becomes the basis of criminalization of economic relations, which has a destructive effect on the entire system of ensuring economic security. The problem of regional corruption lies in its fragmentation, which in turn leads to the formal work of anti-corruption measures on the territory of the subjects of the Russian Federation, including anti-corruption monitoring. It follows from this that a transparent system for assessing and measuring the level of regional corruption is needed.

The Influence of Regional Cultural Factor s on Corporate Behavior

Differences in business behavior due to regional cultural differences are a primary concern in studying the capital markets. This paper highlights the impact of regional trust, regional corruption, and religious beliefs on local business behavior. Firstly, the paper compares the phenomena that occur in companies because of cultural differences between regions. Then, this study analyzes the effect of these regional differences on local business behavior, taking the attitudes of auditors in China and the United States toward the discovery of problems, the prevalence of corruption in 64 transition economies in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa, and the impact of Islam on local business as examples. Secondly, the paper analyzes the factors influencing business behavior in terms of social trust, corruption, and religion based on the existing literature. Finally, after summarizing the findings of the above literature, this paper suggests possible future research directions. Overall, this study provides a new insight for future studies concerning the impact of local culture on business activities.

Modeling the Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on China’s Carbon Emissions: An Economic and Environmental Paradigm

Under the background of high-quality development, the impact of foreign direct investment on carbon emissions has attracted increasing attention. This research studies the impact of foreign direct investment on carbon emissions under the effect of institutional quality regulation. Specifically, this study uses China’s provincial panel data from 2010 to 2019, taking political system quality, economic system quality, and legal system quality as the external environment of system quality, this research studies the threshold effect of foreign direct investment on carbon emissions. The results show that foreign direct investment can effectively restrain the increase in carbon emissions. The impact of FDI on China’s carbon emissions has an obvious economic threshold effect: with the increase of regional corruption, the political quality is gradually declining, and the inhibition effect of foreign direct investment on carbon emissions is declining. With the increase of marketization and intellectual property protection, the regional economic system and legal system have gradually improved, and the role of foreign direct investment in carbon emissions has been further increased. Therefore, China should create a good institutional environment for FDI technology spillovers.

The inducing factors of environmental emergencies: Do environmental decentralization and regional corruption matter?

Environmental emergencies are associated with great harm, sudden onset and high publicity and cause serious damage to a broad range of ecological environmental, human health and social properties in a short period of time. Environmental decentralization can help local governments strengthen their independence and make better use of the advantages of environmental information to curb the occurrence of environmental emergencies, but regional corruption significantly weakens its effectiveness. Therefore, based on panel data of China's 30 provincial administrative regions between 2005 and 2016, this paper applies the panel threshold model to explore the relationship between environmental emergencies, environmental decentralization, and regional corruption. The results indicate that, first, environmental decentralization, environmental administrative decentralization, environmental monitoring decentralization, and environmental supervision decentralization all have a negative influence on environmental emergencies; second, as the degree of corruption in a region increases, the effect of environmental decentralization on restraining environmental emergencies decreases; and finally, there is heterogeneity in the relationship between environmental emergencies and environmental decentralization in various regions. Environmental decentralization in the eastern and western regions negatively affects environmental emergencies, while there is a positive relationship between the two in the central region.

Regional Corruption, Urbanization, and Smokeless Development: An Empirical Study from China

Economic development is not only about quantity, but also about quality, so it’s important to regulate the tobacco, and make the development in a low carbon and smokeless way. Relying on the Chinese city-level dynamic panel data of 2005–2018 and using GMM estimation, this study founded that corruption aggravates carbon emission as well as the pollution effects of urbanization. When the environmental effect of corruption via urbanization is controlled, urbanization can reduce carbon emissions. Furthermore, the inverted U-shaped relationship between urbanization and carbon emission exists with turning point at 3.60, that means when the corruption level is below (above) 3.60, urbanization can improve (aggravate) environmental quality. The results also suggested that urbanization improved environmental quality in 32 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, while in others, it aggravated environmental pollution. Namely that urbanization can improve the local environmental quality only when the corruption level is low; otherwise, it would aggravate the local environmental pollution. By calculating the average corruption level for different city administrative level—above prefecture-level cities, prefecture-level cities, and county-level cities—the values of which were estimated as 3.48, 3.82, and 4.02 respectively, we also founded that urbanization has improved environmental quality only in the above prefecture-level cities, while in the other cities, urbanization has aggravated the local environmental pollution.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM FOR ADDRESSING CORRUPTION CRIME IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SUPPORTING NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The urgency for criminal justice system reconstruction of the corruption is given the legal gap in eradicating corruption law if it is only carried out by the Regional Corruption Court, which is domiciled in the Capital Province. Because the Corruption Court’s working area is so broad, it is because many corruption cases to be tried, it will also require large fees and a large number of judges, and ideally, it will take a long time in the process of examining. Meanwhile, on the other hand, there is an obligation for the corruption case settlement by the Corruption Court to be carried out quickly, simply and at low cost. This paper’s problems are: (a) Why is it important to reconstruct the Corruption Criminal Justice System? (b) What is the ideal construction of the Corruption Criminal Justice System to support national development in Indonesia? The research method is qualitative with juridical normative and sociological approaches, especially in collecting primary data to reconstruct the corruption criminal justice system. This research shows that the ideal construction of the corruption court system is to support National Development, namely the relative competence of the Regional Corruption Court, which is not limited by the administrative area of a province. The Republic of Indonesia’s administrative area consists of various Provinces and Regencies/Cities. In these conditions, ideally, the relative competence of a Corruption Court can also examine corruption cases in districts/cities close to the Corruption Court, even though they are located in a different province from the domicile of a Corruption Court.

Коррупция и миллениалы: региональные практики поведения

The article is devoted to the specifics of corruption practices of millennials in the realities of the subsidized region. The relevance of the problem is due to the following points: heterogeneity of corruption, its evolution, ambiguity of the phenomenon of youth corruption. The article deals with the identification of the prevailing features of regional corruption behavior of millennials with their special qualities (clip consciousness, technological advancement, ambition, accelerated pace of life, lack of reflection, starting security, value virtuality). The analysis uses the results of sociological research, conducted in the Republic of Mordovia in 2007–2019. A wide spread of corruption experience, a fairly high level of regular corruption, the predominant number of corrupt transactions in strictly defined areas, the increase in the cost of corrupt behavior, and a contradictory assessment of the actions of the bribe taker and the bribe recipient were revealed. The article emphasizes the existence of a system of double standards, when one's own corrupt behavior does not have a negative connotation and considers to be forced, while another's behavior is evaluated as a socially dangerous act. The authors suggest that the corrupt behavior of millennials becomes functional and adaptive one.

СМИ о феномене коррупции в региональном медиапространстве

The article deals with the issues of highlighting the phenomenon of corruption in the regional media space. The relevance of the problem is due to the following: the great role of the mass media in shaping public opinion, the special importance of corruption-related issues for the average person, the demand for custom-made publications on corruption-related topics to fight competitors. On the basis of the content analysis, specific features of the coverage of corruption events in the regions of the Volga Federal District are identified. There is an interest in regional corruption issues, a low level of analysis of published materials and an emphasis on entertaining presentation of the material. There is a significant difference in the form and content of publications on corruption offenses in publications with different founders. It is concluded that the media image of corruption formed by the regional mass media is contradictory and one-sided. As a result, consumers of printed products have a distorted perception of the phenomenon of corruption.

The Spatial Spillover Effect and Nonlinear Relationship Analysis Between Environmental Decentralization, Government Corruption and Air Pollution: Evidence From China

The massive development of the Chinese economy is being hindered by the deteriorating air pollution problem. Many methods have been used by the Chinese government to solve this environmental dilemma, out of which environmental decentralization is one of the important measures. The transparency of environmental decentralization may be weakened by the existence of the corruption problem, resulting in further deterioration of the air pollution problem. To examine this problem, the provincial panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2016 is selected and the spatial measurement method is used to study the relationship between environmental decentralization, government corruption, and air pollution. The results indicate that air pollution in different provinces of China is spatially dependent. Local environmental decentralization has a significant inhibitory effect on air pollution, while local air pollution is not inhibited by neighbor's environmental decentralization. However, air quality is significantly deteriorated by local or neighbor's corruption problem. After adding the interaction item of environmental decentralization and government corruption as the adjusting variable, it is found that the inhibitory effect of local environmental decentralization on air pollution is weakened by the problem of local government corruption, while the government corruption of neighbor does not have this effect. In addition, both local and neighbor's environmental decentralization have heterogeneous effects on air pollution from the spatial dynamic threshold regression results with regional corruption as the threshold variable.

Government Subsidies and Firm Technological Innovation Performance: An Empirical Study Based on Panel Data of High-tech Firms

Can government subsidies improve enterprises’ technological innovation performance? Based on the A-share high-tech listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2019, this paper empirically tests the micro policy effect of government subsidies on innovation performance of enterprises under the background of economic transformation, and the moderating effect of regional corruption, market competition and enterprise ownership concentration on this effect. The results show that the high quality signal transmitted by government subsidies is helpful for innovative enterprises to broaden the source of innovation resources and encourage enterprises to actively carry out innovative activities. Moderate level of regional corruption will promote the government subsidy effect, too high or too low level of corruption is not conducive to enterprise innovation; The higher the degree of market competition, the weaker the promoting effect of government subsidies on enterprise innovation; Corporate ownership concentration has a U-shaped moderating effect on government subsidies and innovation performance. Therefore, to improve the independent innovation ability of enterprises, on the one hand, we should continue to strengthen the government innovation subsidy and improve the subsidy system; on the other hand, we should strictly crackdown on corruption activities and supervise the establishment and improvement of the internal control system of enterprises, so as to give full play to the effect of government subsidies.

The spatial spillover effect and nonlinear relationship analysis between environmental decentralization, government corruption and air pollution: Evidence from China

The massive development of the Chinese economy is being hindered by the deteriorating air pollution problem. Many methods have been used by the Chinese government to solve this environmental dilemma, out of which environmental decentralization is one of the important measures. The transparency of environmental decentralization may be weakened by the existence of the corruption problem, resulting in further deterioration of the air pollution problem. To examine this problem, the provincial panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2016 is selected and the spatial measurement method is used to study the relationship between environmental decentralization, government corruption, and air pollution. The results indicate that air pollution in different provinces of China is spatially dependent. Local environmental decentralization has a significant inhibitory effect on air pollution, while local air pollution is not inhibited by neighbor's environmental decentralization. However, air quality is significantly deteriorated by local or neighbor's corruption problem. After adding the interaction item of environmental decentralization and government corruption as the adjusting variable, it is found that the inhibitory effect of local environmental decentralization on air pollution is weakened by the problem of local government corruption, while the government corruption of neighbor does not have this effect. In addition, both local and neighbor's environmental decentralization have heterogeneous effects on air pollution from the spatial dynamic threshold regression results with regional corruption as the threshold variable.

Technology Import and China's Innovation Capability: Does Institutional Quality Matter?

With the rapid growth of China's economy, technology import plays a crucial role in enhancing regional innovation capability. Based on inter-provincial panel data from 2007 to 2016, this paper uses three benchmark linear regression models of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Difference-Generalized Method of Moments (DIFF-GMM), and System-Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) to explore the improvement of China's regional innovation capability by technology import. Then, the regional institutional quality level is measured from the three dimensions of politics, economy, and law, and the two-step difference GMM threshold panel model is used to analyze the effect of technology import on regional innovation capability under different institutional quality conditions. The results show that: (1) In the benchmark linear regression model, technology import has a significant role in promoting regional innovation capability. (2) With the rise of regional corruption, the quality of political institution declines, and the promotion effect of technology import on regional innovation ability is weakened. (3) The improvement of the marketization level and intellectual property protection level strengthen the role of technology introduction in promoting regional innovation capability. On the contrary, in regions with low economic and legal institutional quality, technology import has no significant impact on regional innovation capability.

The dynamic relationship between regional corruption and carbon emissions in China.

Does regional corruption exacerbate regional carbon emissions? To answer this, based on the spatial Durbin model, this study empirically examines the impact of regional corruption on carbon emission, using panel data from 30 provinces in China during the period 2002–2017. The results show that: (1) there is an indistinctive N-shaped relationship between regional corruption and carbon emissions at the national level. Regional corruption tends to initially aggravate carbon emissions, then contributes to emission reduction, and then finally boosts carbon emissions. However, this effect is not statistically significant. The results suggest that the role of regional corruption on carbon emissions is twofold. Corruption can exacerbate and can also inhibit regional carbon emissions. (2) Pronounced regional heterogeneity exists with regard to the influence of corruption on carbon emissions. Regional corruption and carbon emissions show a significant N-shaped dynamic relationship in China’s central region, while the relationship is not significant in the eastern and western regions. (3) The impact of regional corruption on carbon emissions varies with time. For 2002–2009, regional corruption did not have a significant effect on carbon emissions. For 2010–2017, the direct effect became significant, and an apparent N-shaped relationship formed between regional corruption and carbon emissions. Based on the empirical results, this paper proposes several policy recommendations regarding corruption and carbon governance.Graphic abstract

Regional Difference in Spatial Effects: A Theoretical and Empirical Study on the Environmental Effects of FDI and Corruption in China

Environmental pollution has aroused extensive concern worldwide in recent years. Existing studies on the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and environmental pollution have, however, paid little attention to spatial effects and regional corruption’s environmental performance from a spatial perspective. To address this gap, we investigate the spatial agglomeration effects of environmental pollution in China and the environmental effects of FDI and regional corruption using spatial econometric analysis method. The results indicate significant spatial agglomeration effects in environmental pollution. The results of spatial panel data models reveal that the estimation coefficient of FDI is significantly negative, and FDI inflows reduce China’s environmental pollution. Regional corruption is shown to increase environmental pollution, thereby contributing further to environmental degradation. The interaction coefficient of FDI and regional corruption is significantly positive, indicating that regional corruption reduces the environmental benefits derived from FDI. In addition, regional differences in spatial effects verify that regional corruption also reduces the environmental performance of FDI in the central region. Meanwhile, regional corruption increases the environmental aggravation effects of FDI in the eastern region but weakens it in the western region. Our findings lead to some policy recommendations with regard to environmental protection and pollution control.