Comparing Corruption in the Laboratory and in the Field in Burkina Faso and in Canada

We investigate the external validity of corruption experiments by conducting the same experiment in three different environments: a laboratory in a developed country, a laboratory in a developing country and the field in a developing country. In the experiment, a candidate proposes a bribe to a grad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Economic journal (London) 2013-12, Vol.123 (573), p.1168-1187
Main Authors: Armantier, Olivier, Boly, Amadou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bribery
Burkina Faso
Canada
Corruption
Corruption in government
Developed countries
Developing countries
Environmental laboratories
Experiment design
Experiments
Field experiments
International comparisons
Laboratories
LDCs
Paper money
Political corruption
Probability
Reciprocatory motion
Statistical analysis
Studies
Validity
Wages
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Summary:We investigate the external validity of corruption experiments by conducting the same experiment in three different environments: a laboratory in a developed country, a laboratory in a developing country and the field in a developing country. In the experiment, a candidate proposes a bribe to a grader to obtain a better grade. We find the direction and magnitude of several treatment effects to be statistically indistinguishable across the three environments. In particular, increasing the graders' wage reduces the probability of accepting the bribe but promotes reciprocation. Our results therefore provide evidence that laboratory experiments on corruption can have empirical relevance.
ISSN:0013-0133
1468-0297
DOI:10.1111/ecoj.12019