Does corruption boost or harm firms’ performance in developing and emerging economies? A firm‐level study

In the last decade, a growing number of studies have addressed the ongoing debate about whether corruption “sands” or “greases” the wheels of business at the firm level. This study revisits this debate and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework to test whether corruption harms or boosts firm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:World economy 2020-08, Vol.43 (8), p.2119-2152
Main Authors: Martins, Lurdes, Cerdeira, Jorge, Teixeira, Aurora
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Companies
Corruption
developing and emerging economies
Developing countries
Economic analysis
firm performance
institutions
instrumental variables
LDCs
Organizational performance
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Summary:In the last decade, a growing number of studies have addressed the ongoing debate about whether corruption “sands” or “greases” the wheels of business at the firm level. This study revisits this debate and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework to test whether corruption harms or boosts firm performance, as well as the extent to which this relationship is mediated by the countries’ institutional settings, the size and strategic behaviour of the firms, and market competition. Based on a sample of 21,250 firms located in 117 emerging and developing countries, and resorting to instrumental variable (IV) estimations, three main results were found: (a) regardless of the proxy used for corruption and firm performance, the former clearly harms the latter; (b) corruption “greases the wheels” of business for African firms but it “sands the wheels” for firms in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Asia; and (c) the negative impact of corruption on performance is mitigated for larger and exporting firms.
ISSN:0378-5920
1467-9701
DOI:10.1111/twec.12966