How Does Bribery Affect Public Service Delivery? Micro-Evidence from Service Users and Public Officials in Peru

Kaufmann, Daniel ; Montoriol-Garriga, Judit ; Recanatini, Francesca

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABUSE;    ABUSES;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    ADMINISTRATIVE CORRUPTION;    AGGREGATING GOVERNANCE INDICATORS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4492
RP-ID  :  WPS4492

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

When seeking a public service, users maybe required to pay in bribes more than the official price.Consequently, some users may be discouraged and choose notto seek a service due to the higher price imposed by thebribery "tax."This paper explores the price andquantity components of the relationship between governanceand service delivery using micro-level survey data. Theauthors construct new measures of governance using data fromusers of public services from 13 government agencies inPeru.For some basic services, low-income users pay alarger share of their income than wealthier ones do; thatis, the bribery tax is regressive.Where there aresubstitute private providers, low-income users appear to bediscouraged more often and not to seek basic services.Thus, bribery may penalize poorer users twice - acting as aregressive tax and discouraging access to basic services.The paper explores the characteristics of households seekingpublic services.Higher education and age are associatedwith higher probability of being discouraged. Trust in stateinstitutions decreases the probability of being discouraged,while knowledge of mechanisms to report corruption andextent of social network increase it, suggesting thathouseholds may rely on substitutes through networks.Thestudy complements the household analysis with supply-sideanalysis based on data from public officials, and constructsagency-level measures for access to public services andinstitutional factors.Econometric results suggest thatcorruption reduces the supply of services, while voicemechanisms and clarity of the public agency's missionincrease it.