Table 2.7 Some popular measures of corruption (2009

(3) Shortages in the supply of goods and services encourage ‘rationing’ and thereby increase the power and authority of petty public officials. Such increased power of public officials encourages corruption. The rule that

‘power corrupts’ is universal, and it applies to the whole range of government activities, such as health, education, infrastructure, the judiciary, the police and the issuing of permits and licenses. Free competition is an effective method of reducing corruption. However, as we have seen earlier, in international trade and investment, competition among foreign rivals encourages corruption and the grand scale of bribe-paying. (4) Generally speaking, poverty and low income breeds, or at least encourages, corruption. Hence poor and underdeveloped countries are ridden with more corruption than high income and developed countries. Therefore it is possible to argue that economic development itself is likely to be an effective cure for corruption, particularly the so-called ‘petty’ types of corruption.

Table 2.7 shows the ranking of different countries, according to the CPI and CCI.

Table 2.7 Some popular measures of corruption (2009)

Country CPI CCI

Australia 8 8 New Zealand 1 1 China 79 136 Malaysia 56 89 Japan 17 27 Myanmar 178 213 Singapore 3 2 Bangladesh 139 177 India 84 114 Pakistan 139 185 Sri Lanka 97 118

N.B.: At the time this paper was written, 2009 figures were the most recent that were available for both CPI and CCI.

The number of countries included in the CPI and CCI ranking are 180 and 213, respectively.

References

Kurtzman, J., Yago, G., Phumiwasana, T. (2004). The Opacity Index 2004,

Kurtzman Group, Available from http://www.funcionpublica.gob.mx/indices/ doctos/opacity_kurtzman.pdf. Lipsey, R. (2001). PwC’s Opacity Index: A powerful new tool for global investors,

Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, 12(6). Available from:

WileyOnlineLibrary. The PRS Group (2011). ‘International Country Risk Guide’, Available from <http://www.prsgroup.com/icrg.aspx> [16 May 2011]. Transparency International (2010). Corruption Perceptions Index 2010, Available from <http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/ results [4 July 2011]. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (1999). Fighting Corruption to Improve Governance, New York. World Bank (2009). Worldwide Governance Indicators, Available from: <http:// info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/mc_countries.asp> [4 July 2011].

Endnote

i. The authors would like to thank Patti Davis for her invaluable help with regards to this section.