How to Identify Widespread Corruption? New Insights from Geo-Spatial Analysis
BRG is home to renowned thought leaders and experts considered authorities in their fields of work. Our timely research and perspectives provide analysis and insights on the most important issues facing the industries and organizations we serve.
How do we know when corruption has become widespread? Despite the rich body of literature on the problem, there are few proposed methods to conceptualize and empirically identify it within a geographic context. Using spatial analysis, this paper expands the means to identify corruption as an informal institution by examining the degree to which favoritism—in the form of preferential treatment for politically connected firms—is widespread in the Czech procurement sector. Using the conceptual guidance from literature on informal institutions, the empirical results show the prevalence throughout space, the stability over time, and the places by which preferential mechanisms coordinate widespread construction award disparities. These preferential patterns, which are not limited to one or a few individuals, exhibit characteristics that the problem is less of an exception and more of the rule.
Related Professionals
Prepare for what's next.
ThinkSet magazine, a BRG publication, provides nuanced, multifaceted thinking and expert guidance that help today’s business leaders adopt a more strategic, long-term mindset to prepare for what’s next.