Decentralization (Localization) and Corruption : New Cross-Country Evidence

Ivanyna, Maksym ; Shah, Anwar

关键词: ABUSE;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNANCE;    ACCOUNTING;    ADMINISTRATIVE AUTONOMY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5299
RP-ID  :  WPS5299

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper attempts to improve theunderstanding and measurement of decentralization and itsrelationship with corruption in a worldwide context. This isdone by presenting the conceptual underpinnings of suchrelationship as well as using superior and more defensiblemeasures of both decentralization in its various dimensionsas well as corruption for a sample of 182 countries. It isthe first paper that treats various tiers of localgovernments (below the inter-mediate order of government) asthe unit of comparative analysis. In contrast, previousanalyses erroneously focused on subnational governments asthe unit of analysis which yields invalid cross-countrycomparisons. By pursuing rigorous econometric analysis, thepaper demonstrates that decentralization, when properlymeasured to mean moving government closer to people byempowering local governments, is shown to have significantnegative effect on the incidence of corruption regardless ofthe choice of the estimation procedures or the measures ofcorruption used. In terms of various dimensions ofdecentralized local governance, political decentralizationmatters even when we control for fiscal decentralization.Further voice (political accountability) is empiricallyshown to be more important in combating corruption than exitoptions made available through competition among jurisdictions.