Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/289037 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Citation: 
[Journal:] Public Choice [ISSN:] 1573-7101 [Volume:] 189 [Issue:] 1-2 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2020 [Pages:] 3-29
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Natural disasters are challenges for good governance. That conclusion follows from recent research investigating the effects of natural disasters on one important force hostile to good governance: public sector corruption. However, a specific analysis of droughts is so far neglected in the still-young relevant strand of the literature. The present paper fills that gap by analyzing the short- and long-term influence of droughts on public sector corruption within a unified panel estimation approach for 120 countries during the period 1985–2013. Relying on a meteorological drought measure, the Standardized Precipitation Index, we show that more severe drought exposure is followed by more corruption. The effect holds for subsamples of developing and developed countries. The robustness of the results is supported by a variety of stability tests. Furthermore, we provide initial evidence on the transmission paths of drought-induced corruption, which differ depending on the countries’ level of development. Whereas droughts increase corruption risk in developing countries by triggering significantly larger aid inflows and less democratic accountability and transparency, corruption in developed countries rises as a consequence of governmental drought relief payments.
Subjects: 
Drought
Economic development
Institutions
Natural disasters
Public sector corruption
SPI
JEL: 
D73
E02
Q54
Q56
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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