10.17889/E112046V1
Sukhtankar, Sandip
Niehaus, Paul
Replication data for: Corruption Dynamics: The Golden Goose Effect
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2013
10.1257/pol.5.4.230
10.1257/pol.5.4.230
1
Theoretical work on disciplining corrupt agents has emphasized
the role of expected future rents -- for example, efficiency wages. Yet
taken seriously this approach implies that illicit future rents should
also deter corruption. We study this \"golden goose\" effect in the
context of a statutory wage increase in India's employment guarantee
scheme, comparing official microrecords to original household
survey data to measure corruption. We estimate large golden goose
effects that reduced the total impact of the wage increase on theft
by roughly 64 percent. In short, rent expectations matter.
(JEL D73, D82, H83, J41, K42, O17, O21)