Enforcement and public corruption: Evidence from the American states

TY - JOUR

T1 - Enforcement and public corruption

T2 - Evidence from the American states

AU - Alt, James E.

AU - Lassen, David Dreyer

N1 - JEL classification: D72, D73, H83, K42

PY - 2014/1/1

Y1 - 2014/1/1

N2 - We use panel data on corruption convictions, new panels of assistant US Attorneys and relative public sector wages, and careful attention to the consequences of modeling endogeneity to estimate the impact of prosecutorial resources on criminal convictions of those who undertake corrupt acts. Consistent with system capacity arguments, we find that greater prosecutor resources result in more convictions for corruption, other things equal. By explicitly determining the allocation of prosecutorial resources endogenously from partisan and administrative considerations, we show that this specification leads to larger estimates of the effect of resources on convictions. We also control for and confirm in a panel context the effects of many previously identified correlates and causes of corruption. We find more limited, recent evidence for the deterrent effect of increased prosecutions. The results are robust to various ways of measuring the number of convictions as well as to various estimators. (JEL D72, D73, H83, K42)

AB - We use panel data on corruption convictions, new panels of assistant US Attorneys and relative public sector wages, and careful attention to the consequences of modeling endogeneity to estimate the impact of prosecutorial resources on criminal convictions of those who undertake corrupt acts. Consistent with system capacity arguments, we find that greater prosecutor resources result in more convictions for corruption, other things equal. By explicitly determining the allocation of prosecutorial resources endogenously from partisan and administrative considerations, we show that this specification leads to larger estimates of the effect of resources on convictions. We also control for and confirm in a panel context the effects of many previously identified correlates and causes of corruption. We find more limited, recent evidence for the deterrent effect of increased prosecutions. The results are robust to various ways of measuring the number of convictions as well as to various estimators. (JEL D72, D73, H83, K42)

U2 - 10.1093/jleo/ews036

DO - 10.1093/jleo/ews036

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84877829074

SN - 8756-6222

VL - 30

SP - 306

EP - 338

JO - Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization

JF - Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization

IS - 2

ER -