Abstract
The present study investigates the economic, social and political dimensions of development worldwide focusing on the relationship between perceived corruption and income levels, human development, government effectiveness and quality of the political system. The empirical results of this study reveal that these aspects are partly correlated, and feedback relationships are important when assessing socioeconomic development in a comparative perspective. Specific combinations of these factors characterize stable clusters of countries with distinctive economic performances. Effective developmental strategies require measures aimed at boosting income, reducing corruption and stimulating human development and government effectiveness. Empirical results of our analysis also suggest that these strategies are sustainable in the long-run only when associated with institutional transformations, enhancing governance quality. With unstable democracy and ineffective government, socioeconomic development cannot be effectively achieved and maintained on a long-run basis, even under increasing levels of income and wealth. With corruption, wealth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for socioeconomic development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aidt, T.S.: Corruption, institutions, and economic development. Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 25, 271–291 (2009)
Amundsen, I.: Political Corruption: An Introduction to the Issues. Working paper 99:7. Chr. Mickelsen Institute, Bergen (1999)
Ceccarelli, T., Bajocco, S., Perini, L., Salvati, L.: Urbanisation and land take of high quality agricultural soils—exploring long-term land use changes and land capability in Northern Italy. Int. J. Environ. Res. 8(1), 181–192 (2014)
Ciommi, M., Gigliarano, C., Emili, A., Taralli, S., Chelli, F.M.: A new class of composite indicators for measuring well-being at the local level: an application to the Equitable and Sustainable Well-being (BES) of the Italian Provinces. Ecol. Ind. 76, 281–296 (2017)
de Vaal, A., Ebben, W.: Institutions and the relations between corruption and economic growth. Rev. Dev. Econ. 15(1), 108–123 (2011)
Duvernoy, I., Zambon, I., Sateriano, A., Salvati, L.: Pictures from the other side of the fringe: urban growth and peri-urban agriculture in a post-industrial city (Toulouse, France). J. Rural Stud. 57, 25–35 (2018)
Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2010. Global Erosion and Freedom, New York, USA (2010)
Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2013. Democratic Breakthroughs in the Balance, New York, USA (2013)
Freudenberg, M.: Composite Indicators of Country Performance: A Critical Assessment. OECD, Paris (2003)
Huntington, S.P.: Political Order in Changing Societies. Yale University Press, New Haven (1968)
Johnston, M.: The definitions debate: old conflicts in new guises. In: Jain, A.K. (ed.) The Political Economy of Corruption, pp. 11–31. Routledge, London (2001)
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., Mastruzzi, M.: Governance Matters VIII: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008. Policy research working paper no. 4978. World Bank (2009)
Lalountas, D.A., Manolas, G.A., Vavouras, I.S.: Corruption, globalization and development: how are these three phenomena related? J. Policy Model. 33, 636–648 (2011)
Lambsdorff, J.G.: Causes and consequences of corruption: what do we know from a cross-section of countries? In: Rose-Ackerman, S. (ed.) International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, pp. 3–51. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (2006)
Lambsdorff, J.G.: The Institutional Economics of Corruption and Reform. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007)
Lederman, D., Loayza, N.V., Soares, R.R.: Accountability and corruption: political institutions matter. Econ. Polit. 17(1), 1–35 (2005)
Leff, N.: Economic development through bureaucratic corruption. Am. Behav. Sci. 8, 8–14 (1964)
Martinez-Vazquez, J., Arze-del-Granado, J., Boex, J.: Fighting Corruption in the Public Sector, Contributions to economic analysis, vol. 284. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2007)
OECD: Ethics in the Public Service: Current Issues and Practice. Public management occasional papers no. 14, Paris (1996)
Paldam, M.: The cross-country pattern of corruption. Economics, culture and the seesaw dynamics. Eur. J. Polit. Econ. 18, 215–240 (2002)
Pili, S., Grigoriadis, E., Carlucci, M., Clemente, M., Salvati, L.: Towards sustainable growth? A multi-criteria assessment of (changing) urban forms. Ecol. Ind. 76, 71–80 (2017)
Rontos, K., Salvati, L., Vavouras, I.: Socioeconomic and political dimensions of development worldwide. Sociol. Criminol. 1(1), 1–8 (2013)
Rontos, K., Grigoriadis, S., Sateriano, A., Syrmali, M., Vavouras, I., Salvati, L.: Lost in protest, found in segregation: divided cities in the light of the 2015 ‘Oki’ referendum in Greece. City Cult. Soc. 7(3), 139–148 (2016)
Rose-Ackerman, S.: Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform. Cambridge University Press, New York (1999)
Salvati, L., Zitti, M.: Substitutability and equal weighting of environmental indicators: a proposal to estimate the importance of the different components of a composite index. Ecol. Econ. 68(4), 1093–1099 (2009)
Salvati, L., Gargiulo, V., Rontos, K., Sabbi, A.: Latent exurban development: city expansion along the rural-to-urban gradient in growing and declining regions of southern Europe. Urban Geogr. 34(3), 376–394 (2013)
Sioussiouras, P., Vavouras, I.: Political rights, development and corruption in the Balkan and Arab Mediterranean countries. Mediterr. Q. 23, 89–103 (2012)
Sung, H.-E.: A convergence approach to the analysis of political corruption: a cross-national study. Crime Law Soc. Change 38, 137–160 (2002)
Tanzi, V.: Corruption Around the World: Causes, Consequences, Scope and Cures. IMF working paper, no. 63 (1998)
Tanzi, V.: Policies, Institutions and the Dark Side of Economics. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (2000)
Transparency International: Poverty and Corruption. Working paper no. 2/2008 (2008)
Transparency International: Corruption Perceptions Index (2010)
Transparency International: Frequently Asked Questions About Corruption. http://www.transparency.org/news_room/faq/corruption_faq#faqcorr1 (2011). Accessed July 2018
Treisman, D.: The causes of corruption: a cross-national study. J. Public Econ. 76, 399–457 (2000)
UNDP: Arab Human Development Report. United Nations Development Programme, New Yourk, USA (2002)
UNDP: A User’s Guide to Measuring Corruption. United Nations Development Programme, New Yourk, USA (2008)
UNDP: Human Development Report 2009: Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development. Palgrave, New York (2009)
Warren, M.E.: What does corruption mean in a democracy? Am. J. Polit. Sci. 48(2), 328–343 (2004)
World Bank: World Development Report 1997. Oxford University Press, Washington (1997)
World Bank: World Development Indicators Database, 15 December. World Bank, Washington, USA (2010a)
World Bank: The Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2009 Update. Aggregate Indicators of Governance 1996–2009. www.govindicators.org (2010b). Accessed July 2018
Zhang, Y., Cao, L., Vaughn, M.S.: Social support and corruption: structural determinants of corruption in the world. Aust. N. Z. J. Criminol. 42, 204–217 (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 4.
Appendix 2
See Table 5.
Appendix 3
See Fig. 1.
Quantile plots for the intercept and individual predictors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rontos, K., Vavouras, I., Ciommi, M.T. et al. Two faces of the same coin? A comparative, global approach to corruption and socioeconomic development. Qual Quant 53, 1875–1894 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00846-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00846-0