Using cross-national panel data, Krause and Méndez recently studied whether voters retract support from political candidates who they think are corrupt. Their main finding is that corruption in public office is effectively punished by voters. Given the well-known issues with adequately measuring corruption, this note examines the sensitivity of extant findings to an alternate corruption measure. We fail to find a statistically robust effect of corruption on electoral outcomes.
BillgerSherrilyn M.GoelRajeev K.. 2009. “Do Existing Corruption Levels Matter in Controlling Corruption? Cross-country Quantile Regression Estimates.” Journal of Development Economics90:299–305.
2.
DonchevDilyanUjhelyiGergely. 2007. “Do Corruption Indices Measure Corruption?”Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
3.
GoelRajeev K.NelsonMichael A.. 2011. “Measures of Corruption and Determinants of U.S. Corruption.” Economics of Governance12:155–76.
4.
GoelRajeev K.NelsonMichael A.NarettaMichael A.. 2012. “The Internet as an Indicator of Corruption Awareness.” European Journal of Political Economy28:64–75.
5.
KrauseStefanMéndezFabio. 2009. “Corruption and Elections: An Empirical Study for a Cross-section of Countries.” Economics and Politics21:179–200.
6.
LambsdorffJohann Graf. 2006. “Causes and Consequences of Corruption: What Do We Know from a Cross-Section of Countries?” In International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, edited by Rose-AckermanSusan, 3–51. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
7.
OlkenBenjamin A.2009. “Corruption Perceptions vs. Corruption Reality.” Journal of Public Economics93:950–64.
SeldadyoHarryde HaanJakob. 2006. “The Determinants of Corruption: A Literature Survey and New Evidence.” Paper presented at European Public Choice Society Meetings, Turku, Finland.
10.
TreismanDaniel. 2007. “What Have We Learned about the Causes of Corruption from Ten Years of Cross-national Empirical Research?”Annual Review of Political Science10:211–44.
11.
WilliamsAndrewSiddiqueAbu. 2008. “The Use (and Abuse) of Governance Indicators in Economics: A Review.” Economics of Governance9:131–75.
