Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.

Why do some people choose corruption over honesty and others not? Do the social norms and values prevailing in the societies in which they grew up affect their decisions? In 2005, we conducted a bribery experiment and found that, among undergraduates, we could predict who would act corruptly with re...

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Main Authors: Barr, A, Serra, D
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2010
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author Barr, A
Serra, D
author_facet Barr, A
Serra, D
author_sort Barr, A
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description Why do some people choose corruption over honesty and others not? Do the social norms and values prevailing in the societies in which they grew up affect their decisions? In 2005, we conducted a bribery experiment and found that, among undergraduates, we could predict who would act corruptly with reference to the level of corruption in their home country. Among graduate students we could not. In 2007, we replicated our result and also found that time spent in the UK was associated with a decline in the propensity to bribe, although this does not explain our inability to predict graduate behaviour. We conclude that, while corruption may, in part, be a cultural phenomenon, individuals should not be prejudged with reference to their country of origin.
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spelling oxford-uuid:81743c8b-68ef-445d-9b7f-be54065f27c32022-03-26T21:30:20ZCorruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:81743c8b-68ef-445d-9b7f-be54065f27c3EnglishDepartment of Economics - ePrintsElsevier2010Barr, ASerra, DWhy do some people choose corruption over honesty and others not? Do the social norms and values prevailing in the societies in which they grew up affect their decisions? In 2005, we conducted a bribery experiment and found that, among undergraduates, we could predict who would act corruptly with reference to the level of corruption in their home country. Among graduate students we could not. In 2007, we replicated our result and also found that time spent in the UK was associated with a decline in the propensity to bribe, although this does not explain our inability to predict graduate behaviour. We conclude that, while corruption may, in part, be a cultural phenomenon, individuals should not be prejudged with reference to their country of origin.
spellingShingle Barr, A
Serra, D
Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.
title Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.
title_full Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.
title_fullStr Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.
title_full_unstemmed Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.
title_short Corruption and culture: An Experimental Analysis.
title_sort corruption and culture an experimental analysis
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