Suchergebnisse

International audience ; We study embezzlement when donations have to pass through intermediaries to reach recipients, by means of a sequential game tested in a laboratory experiment conducted in Tanzania. We investigate the impact on the amount embezzled of both the number of intermediaries in transfer chains and transparency about the donation. We show that donors are less generous in the presence of intermediaries. When transfer chains are shorter, aggregate embezzlement decreases, at least when donations are transparent. At the individual level, intermediaries embezzle less, the longer the transfer chain; this is due to less embezzlement at the beginning of the chain. We fail finding significant positive effects of transparency on the honesty of individual transfers through social judgment. JEL Codes: C91, D73, O19

International audience ; We study embezzlement when donations have to pass through intermediaries to reach recipients, by means of a sequential game tested in a laboratory experiment conducted in Tanzania. We investigate the impact on the amount embezzled of both the number of intermediaries in transfer chains and transparency about the donation. We show that donors are less generous in the presence of intermediaries. When transfer chains are shorter, aggregate embezzlement decreases, at least when donations are transparent. At the individual level, intermediaries embezzle less, the longer the transfer chain; this is due to less embezzlement at the beginning of the chain. We fail finding significant positive effects of transparency on the honesty of individual transfers through social judgment. JEL Codes: C91, D73, O19

International audience ; We study embezzlement when donations have to pass through intermediaries to reach recipients, by means of a sequential game tested in a laboratory experiment conducted in Tanzania. We investigate the impact on the amount embezzled of both the number of intermediaries in transfer chains and transparency about the donation. We show that donors are less generous in the presence of intermediaries. When transfer chains are shorter, aggregate embezzlement decreases, at least when donations are transparent. At the individual level, intermediaries embezzle less, the longer the transfer chain; this is due to less embezzlement at the beginning of the chain. We fail finding significant positive effects of transparency on the honesty of individual transfers through social judgment. JEL Codes: C91, D73, O19

International audience ; We study embezzlement when donations have to pass through intermediaries to reach recipients, by means of a sequential game tested in a laboratory experiment conducted in Tanzania. We investigate the impact on the amount embezzled of both the number of intermediaries in transfer chains and transparency about the donation. We show that donors are less generous in the presence of intermediaries. When transfer chains are shorter, aggregate embezzlement decreases, at least when donations are transparent. At the individual level, intermediaries embezzle less, the longer the transfer chain; this is due to less embezzlement at the beginning of the chain. We fail finding significant positive effects of transparency on the honesty of individual transfers through social judgment. JEL Codes: C91, D73, O19

International audience ; We study embezzlement when donations have to pass through intermediaries to reach recipients, by means of a sequential game tested in a laboratory experiment conducted in Tanzania. We investigate the impact on the amount embezzled of both the number of intermediaries in transfer chains and transparency about the donation. We show that donors are less generous in the presence of intermediaries. When transfer chains are shorter, aggregate embezzlement decreases, at least when donations are transparent. At the individual level, intermediaries embezzle less, the longer the transfer chain; this is due to less embezzlement at the beginning of the chain. We fail finding significant positive effects of transparency on the honesty of individual transfers through social judgment. JEL Codes: C91, D73, O19

This paper studies the pattern of interregional investment after bureaucratic transfers across Chinese cities. Using the administrative records of business registration, we find that the transfer of a local leader between prefecture cities is associated with about 3% increase in interregional investment along the direction of transfer. The comoving firms purchase larger parcels of land and at lower prices. They also exhibit a higher likelihood of exiting when the patrons leave the office. Comoving interregional investment does not increase the probability of promotion for transferred leaders, yet expose them to a higher risk of anticorruption prosecution. The findings highlight the importance of personal connection between firms and bureaucrats in shaping the pattern of interregional investment. ; PR ; IFPRI3; CRP2; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; DCA; Capacity Strengthening; IFPRIOA; ISI ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Dieses Policy Paper untersucht für die Europäische Union, die Bundesebene und die Bundesländer die institutionelle und inhaltliche Ausgestaltung der Regulierungskontrolle und der Maßnahmen zum Bürokratieabbau. Die Analyse der administrativen Belastungen für die Unternehmen in Deutschland und der Institutionen zu ihrer Reduzierung ist bislang überwiegend auf die gesamtstaatliche Ebene mit der Bundesgesetzgebung fokussiert, eine zusammenfassende Darstellung der Zuständigkeiten nach staatlichen Ebenen fehlt. Auf EU-Ebene wurde erst nach der Jahrtausendwende und damit relativ spät die bürokratische Belastung für Unternehmen durch europäische Rechtsakte und Vorgaben thematisiert. Ausgehend von der Kleinunternehmenscharta 2000 folgten 2007 die Einsetzung der Hochrangigen Gruppe im Bereich Verwaltungslasten, 2008 der Small Business Act und 2015 das REFIT-Programm. Auf gesamtstaatlicher Ebene in Deutschland wurde nach diversen Einzelmaßnahmen 2006 mit dem Standardkostenmodell und der Einsetzung des Nationalen Normenkontrollrats ein systematisches Vorgehen gegen administrative Belastungen für Unternehmen eingeleitet, dass eine Reduktion dieser eng abgegrenzten Bürokratie um ein Viertel bringen sollte. Seit 2010 wird auch der Erfüllungsaufwand von neuen Gesetzen gemessen. Die Bundesländer sind dem deutschen Föderalismus gemäß sehr unterschiedlich aufgestellt, was die Begrenzung von Bürokratie betrifft. Bis auf Berlin verfügen alle Länder über ein Mittelstandsgesetz oder eine entsprechende Richtlinie zur Berücksichtigung der Belange des Mittelstands, aber nur wenige Länder verfügen über eine eigene Standardkostenmessung nach Bundesvorbild. Das Policy Paper schließt mit Empfehlungen für die drei untersuchten Staatsebenen. ; This Policy Paper analyses the relevant institutions and administrative measures for curbing bureaucracy in the European Union, for the German federal administration and at German Laender level. While bureaucratic burdens and measures to control and reduce bureaucracy are well documented for the national level in Germany, a common approach to the EU, national and state level is still missing. In the EU, the burdens for the enterprise sector resulting from European bureaucracy and regulation became an important topic only after 2000, as European competitiveness seemed to be in danger. Starting with the 'European Charter for Small Enterprises' in 2000, the 'High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens' was established in 2007 and the 'Small Business Act' followed in 2008. In 2015, the REFIT-programme was introduced to strengthen the better regulation agenda. On the German national level, the introduction of the standard cost model and the establishment of the regulatory control council 'Normenkontrollrat' in 2006 can be viewed as milestones, because they were a prerequisite for a systematic measurement and reduction of bureaucracy-induced costs. In 2010, measurement was extended to total costs of regulation including compliance costs instead of costs of administrative procedures only. Nevertheless, a considerable discrepancy between bureaucracy felt by enterprises and measured by government agencies remains. At the administrative level of the 16 German Laender, institutions and measures to control and reduce bureaucracy vary widely. Only few Laender have introduced a measurement of state bureaucracy and a regulatory control council similar to the federal level. The paper concludes with recommendations to strengthen regulatory and bureaucracy control on the three governmental levels.

This paper analyzes the impact of corruption on the extent of trust in political institutions using a rich collection of comparable data provided by the Afrobarometer surveys conducted in 18 sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, we set out to test the "efficient grease" hypothesis that corruption can strengthen citizens' trust since bribe paying and clientelism open the door to otherwise scarce and inaccessible services and subsidies, and that this increases institutional trust. Our findings reject this theoretical argument. We show that corruption never produces trust-enhancing effects regardless of the evaluation of public service quality. The results reveal how perceived and experienced corruption impact negatively, but differently, on citizens' trust in political institutions. The adverse effect of perceived corruption decreases with the fall in public service quality, whereas the negative effect of experienced corruption decreases as public service quality increases. ; Cet article explore les interactions entre la confiance institutionnelle et la corruption à partir d'un riche corpus d'enquêtes-ménages comparables : les enquêtes Afrobaromètre réalisées dans 18 pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne. Plus précisément, il teste les théories de l' « huile dans les rouages » selon lesquelles la corruption peut renforcer la confiance des citoyens en leur permettant d'accéder à des services publics autrement inaccessibles. Nos résultats infirment clairement ces théories. Nous montrons que la corruption réduit clairement la confiance et ce quelque soit la qualité des services gouvernementaux. Ils suggèrent toutefois que l'expérience et la perception de la corruption ont des effets distincts sur la confiance institutionnelle.

This paper analyzes the impact of corruption on the extent of trust in political institutions using a rich collection of comparable data provided by the Afrobarometer surveys conducted in 18 sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, we set out to test the "efficient grease" hypothesis that corruption can strengthen citizens' trust since bribe paying and clientelism open the door to otherwise scarce and inaccessible services and subsidies, and that this increases institutional trust. Our findings reject this theoretical argument. We show that corruption never produces trust-enhancing effects regardless of the evaluation of public service quality. The results reveal how perceived and experienced corruption impact negatively, but differently, on citizens' trust in political institutions. The adverse effect of perceived corruption decreases with the fall in public service quality, whereas the negative effect of experienced corruption decreases as public service quality increases. ; Cet article explore les interactions entre la confiance institutionnelle et la corruption à partir d'un riche corpus d'enquêtes-ménages comparables : les enquêtes Afrobaromètre réalisées dans 18 pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne. Plus précisément, il teste les théories de l' « huile dans les rouages » selon lesquelles la corruption peut renforcer la confiance des citoyens en leur permettant d'accéder à des services publics autrement inaccessibles. Nos résultats infirment clairement ces théories. Nous montrons que la corruption réduit clairement la confiance et ce quelque soit la qualité des services gouvernementaux. Ils suggèrent toutefois que l'expérience et la perception de la corruption ont des effets distincts sur la confiance institutionnelle.

This paper introduces hyperbolic discounting into politics. In our model, politicians act according to the preferences of voters in order to be re-elected. As voters' preferences are dynamically inconsistent, the political process results in an allocation of the public budget that is distorted towards consumption ex- penditures. We show that this inefficiency is mitigated when the influence of bureaucrats who favour an excessive supply of public goods is taken into ac- count. Finally, we derive a positive relationship between the optimal level of a bureaucracy's influence and the relevance of long-term investments in a given policy area.

Which incentives have the strongest impact on the size of the shadow economy? Is it about government's pressure against entrepreneurs operating in this sector, or is it about the benefits of legality? The goal of this paper is to explicitly contrast the role of sticks (court repressiveness) and carrots (financial aid to small and medium-sized firms) as factors determining the size of the shadow economy, using the case of the Russian taxi market. It uses a unique dataset of taxi licensing data from regional transport departments and indicators for taxi market demand to estimate the extent of informal business. When controlling for market demand, it finds a strong and robust positive effect of sanctions on the size of the official market, with higher repressiveness leading to a smaller shadow economy. In contrast, the effect of carrots was insignificant. The results suggest that the effectiveness of carrot policies is compromised when entrepreneurs operate informally to avoid dealing with corrupt bureaucrats and have low trust in the government.

We study how political turnover in mayoral elections in Brazil affects public service provision by local governments. Exploiting a regression discontinuity design for close elections, we find that municipalities with a new party in office experience upheavals in the municipal bureaucracy: new personnel are appointed across multiple service sectors, and at both managerial and non-managerial levels. In education, the increase in the replacement rate of personnel in schools controlled by the municipal government is accompanied by test scores that are 0.05–0.08 standard deviations lower. In contrast, turnover of the mayor's party does not impact local (non-municipal) schools. These findings suggest that political turnover can adversely affect the quality of public services when the bureaucracy is not shielded from the political process. (JEL D72, D73, H75, H76, J45, O17)

With inefficient bureaucratic institutions, the effects of laws are hard to assess and incompetent politicians may pass laws to build a reputation as skillful reformers. Since too many laws curtail bureaucratic efficiency, this mechanism can generate a steady state with Kafkaesque bureaucracy. Temporary surges in political instability heighten the incentives to overproduce laws and can shift the economy towards the Kafkaesque state. Consistent with the theory, after a surge in political instability in the early 1990s, Italy experienced a significant increase in the amount of poor-quality legislation and a decrease in bureaucratic efficiency. (JEL D72, D73)

We introduce bureaucratic corruption in a simple way and examine its effect on government revenue when policies change. We show that a rise in the tax rate can lead to a fall in net revenue--a Laffer curve result due to the proportion of auditors that are corrupt and enforcement costs. It may pay for the government to lower audit probabilities and induce cheating. If corruption is low enough, revenues garnered from capturing people cheating may exceed those from choosing an audit structure in which everyone declares their true income. We also examine a case in which corruption is endogenous.

We study the private gains to bureaucrats from their political alignment with elected politicians. Whereas existing studies generally rely on proxies for politician-bureaucrat political alignment, a rare feature of our data allows measuring it directly since 27% of bureaucrats ran for political office. We focus explicitly on individuals at the very top of the administrative hierarchy, and are able to separate the intensive margin (i.e. wage increases) from any additional effects at the extensive margin (i.e. new appointments). Using close elections for inference, we find that politician-bureaucrat alignment significantly increases top bureaucrats' wage even in the Norwegian civil service system. Our results go against predictions from models with policy-motivated bureaucrats, but are consistent with politically aligned principal-agent matches being more productive.